Bullet Train is kind of wild, and I'm not sure how to review it. I'm never sure how fair I can be with translated works simply because I never know if I don't like or understand certain things due to translation issues, cultural issues, or something else.

However, I enjoyed this as an overall story. It reminded me of Tarantino in terms of the cast all coming together in various ways, but it felt much more like Guy Ritchie's madcap storytelling style. I point out movie similarities, because this reads like a movie more than a novel. I kept thinking about how neat it would be to see this all play out as a film - and surprise, it's already in the works.

The characters are all interesting, and though the book didn't really have time to dig too deep into every one, I got a really great idea of who each person was. Their quirks, their likes and dislikes, how they felt about being on the Shinkansen, and they all felt very believable as the events unfolded. (Believable in the context of this book, because they're all insane otherwise.)

The pace is pretty breakneck, and the story is set out as something simple that snowballs into complicated and weird pairings of characters and interactions but it all still made sense. Hell, I kind of cheered when a fucking Thomas the Tank Engine sticker became a big plot point.

Madness, in the best way possible.

(I received this as an e-ARC from NetGalley for review. The English translation will be available August 3rd, 2021.)