A review by gabriel_sakoda
Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka

adventurous dark funny lighthearted relaxing fast-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

3.0

What a stupid book. Bullet Train reads like a generic action film (because it is), but the criminals are so incompetent and have such disproportionately sized egos that it still remained engaging for 400 pages. This book tries to be funny, but it almost always falls flat. But instead of just being bored with or frustrated by the comedy, you laugh at how dumb these dopey criminals are. They all think that they are the shit, except Ladybug. His resignation to the unevenness of life and work make him pretty humorless as a character, but what he does and what happens to him is by far the best part of the book. He is competent, resolved and jaded. Where the Fruit are constantly cranking out bad one-liners, Ladybug rolls with the punches. The Prince, meanwhile, is just annoying. And Kimura is a downer. But above all, the actual series of events is so entertaining and watching them all fail in their unique way give the book energy. Kotaro Isaka made sure that none of the characters were ever succeeding or failing for too long at a time and always switching up how one of them messed up. Something happened, but then something completely tangential happened. It was entertaining and gave the characters something to respond to whether it be shockwaves from someone else's mess or a disaster of their own making.. It was a lightning fast read and a good buffer between more "literary" novels.
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