While I enjoyed reading about what happened prior to Bakemonogatari, I missed a lot of the rididculous banter in this book. It was only at certain times with Araragi and Hanekawa did I really get to enjoy the conversations I came to love. You get more insight on what kind of guy Araragi is and how that sets up the later situations. It is also a very good and engrossing story to the end, but one that left me wanting more in terms of characters interacting with each other like the other books.