Oh...my....god.....🤯

This is somehow better than volume 1.
I am completely enraptured by this story, the characters, the world building.

The mystery enfolds, and new mysteries take its place. These new mysteries are all connected.
My initial read on Johan has now had a few wrenches thrown into it, his character, while not present, grew immensely through other characters revealing things little by little about him. He grew through their perspectives, their fears, their shared history. It was brilliant, a perfect way to utilise the mystery tone and also further the mystery behind Johan, and even Nina.

Tenma is such a brilliant character, he's so selfless, to his detriment at times. I love how he's being hunted by the police but keeps saving people along the way and they repay his kindness by not ratting him out to the cops that come knocking.

Tenma took in a child this volume, Dieter

The arc with him finding out the abuse little Dieter was subjected to, and him, as he does with his patients, freed Dieter from the shackles of abuse by getting the kid to make his own choice and to free himself and break his own chains. He held the abuser at gunpoint and asked the kid to make a choice, that tomorrow won't be black as night, but a good day. Just like he did with his patients, he didn't just cure any physical ailments, Tenma helped this boy avoid potential trauma by simply caring about him and giving him the courage to free himself.

It was beautiful.

However, I'm not sure about the author's choice to have Dieter accompany Tenma on his hunt to kill Johan. I think he's trying to make Dieter Tenma's anchor to his humanity (something Johan never had), and while that might work, it also means he is someone that will have to be rescued by Tenma, and I suspect if that's the case, it will get really annoying. The story is filled with so much depth that it really doesn't need a consistent damsel to be saved.

I love how both Nina and Tenma are on the same journey, purely good people who have took on training with a gun so they can kill a monster and further save lives.

The story hints that Nina might have an inner monster like Johan, it's a nice touch.

Now I will admit, the second extreme right-winged neo-nazi's were introduced into the narrative and it started talking about Johan being some chosen one to be the next Hitler, I was starting to check out. Just because the book is set in Germany didn't mean you had to take the easy route and fucking bring in Nazis 😑

But luckily, it was just another twist to fuck with us, for the neo-nazis we being used by an organisation familiar with Johan and wants him dead.

Nice twist,

glad the nazi shit was dropped.

This series, so far, is thrilling, page to page, beginning to end. I was literally in a hot tub earlier reading this on my Kobo, and I couldn't put the book down, I was in there so long, bubbling and shrivelling up like a raisin, because I forgot where I was and was so captivated by the story and characters 😂

Onto volume 3! 😎