Reviews with content warning for Bullying - At Night, I Become A Monster

So the theme of this book is bullying, told from the perspective of a middle school student named Adachi. The one receiving bullying is his classmate, Yano Satsuki. Adachi himself is a bystander for the most part, which links to my biggest problem with this book. I hate it when a story that centers around bullying ends without a resolution, and that is exactly the case here.

Honestly, I might have enjoyed this a little more if only the main character isn't so indecisive. Adachi only makes a decision at the end, so the rest of the book is him sailing through all sorts of emotions while doing absolutely nothing about Yano's situation. It's super frustrating, and the fact that the depiction of bullying is so realistic only made it worse for me.

Still, the writing is so good in the poetic, introspective way. It conveys the conflicting thoughts and emotions really well, and it does show the message of how much of a monster humans can be. It just doesn't have a proper conclusion, so do keep that in mind if you're planning to pick this up.

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not_just_jules37's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

1.5

This was...bad. Really fricking bad. The plot was bad, and slow as f. The characters were supposed to have some sort of moral awakening but it was just soooo poorly executed. The main character was supposed to like Yano, but he kept behaving like a douchebag out of his "sense of unity". A lot of things that happened had no reason, nor relevance to the plot, and some were never explained either. Actually, most weren't. That said I liked the original premise of a kid turning into a monster at night, but the book steered from it's original middlesgrade spooky fantasy vibe to a story describing a very corrupt system and even trying to normalize at some points(even tho that was denied in, like, the last chapter). I also liked the idea of midnight break and yano's character's speach pattern. I kinda hated the main charcter who thought himself better than yano, and a good person in general, while he did nothing to help her during daytime, actively participated in her bullying and constantly tried to change and fix her, while being eaten alive by his own fear. The redemption at the end was OK, but it took place over very few chapters while the rest were kinda awful to read. The writing style was Ok too, tho it had this repetition thing that almost made it feel like I was reading a misprinted edition of the book. That all said, I think the corrupt system shown was very infuriating and I thing that was the point so well done on that at least, author. Overall didn't really like this book, but it was a quick read

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yerulp's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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lazymajou's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is about a boy who's turning in a monster at night (suprise suprise). He doesn't know why it happens, but since he can't sleep when he's in this form, he walks around the neightbourhood, usually he goes to the seaside. But one day, when he realises he forgot his homework from school he goes there to get it back. And even tho it's the middle of the night and no one is supposed to be there – he meets his classmate Yano there and she finds out his secret. But you see, Yano isn't particulary liked by other kids in the class, she's being bullied after she thew out another students book out of the window and made her cry. She stutters and she's really akward. Adachi (main character) starts to understand her a little with time but still continues to ignore her in school, cause he's frighten to go against the class. It's a story about a boy that even tho he knows what he does is bad he continues to do it because he's scared and doesn’t even know who or what he is himself. It's a story about bullying told not by a bully or their victim but a standby.

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gbookly's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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aliciatay88's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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