content warnings: violence, death, gore, self-harm, suicidal ideation, overdose mention, sexism, lesbophobic comments
representation: japanese-american bisexual main character, japanese mlm polyamorous side character, black lesbian side character, every other character is japanese

This book was so much better than I expected!! For such a short stand-alone it packs such a punch and, despite how well it wrapped up, part of me wants another book.

Reiko as a lead character is fantastic, if not just for how refreshing she is. She's a vengeful, angry woman who isn't all talk and no action. She wants people to hurt, but the ways in which she displays this is so real and raw that I couldn't help but feel empathetic for her, even when she's at her worst. It's also really refreshing to have a protagonist like this who isn't white, as they all seem to be.

The side characters were a bit more hit-and-miss for me. Miyu, as you discover more about her, is an amazing character, but every other character from her time period feel average at best. Kenji and Sierra were both fun characters who I think we didn't get to see enough of, but everyone else in Reiko's world felt really fake. Their decisions didn't feel human and it made it impossible to really care when Reiko was only with them. There were also some characters, mostly Reiko's family, who I wish we could have gotten a bit more from.

Most of the characters lacking an amount of depth was more than made up for by the great plot. The plot in the past was easily the more exciting of the two, but the melodramatic nature of the plot in present day made it so it wasn't a chore to return to the present. The plot moved very fast, as it has to for such a short book, but it never felt rushed. This also meant that there were no unnecessary scenes of filler; every scene included in the book was necessary.

I flew through this book - finishing it in a couple hours - and would highly recommend picking it up.