REVIEW: Bullet Train (book) by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Malissa

Bullet Train is a Japanese thriller. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book focuses on multiple sets of characters, all of whom are traveling on the same bullet train. There's Kimura, a recovering alcoholic whose young son is comatose in the hospital. Kimura is planning to kill Satoshi, the Prince, the angelic-looking but sociopathic teenager who hurt Kimura's son. There's Nanao, the self-proclaimed "unluckiest assassin in the world," who's been sent to steal a suitcase - a seemingly easy job, but Nanao knows that nothing is ever easy when he's involved. And then there's Tangerine and Lemon, two assassins who've been tasked with retrieving their boss's kidnapped son and a suitcase, the very same suitcase that Nanao has been sent to steal. Their job seems easy too, and just about done...until the boss's son suddenly winds up dead.

This is set in the same world as Isaka's Three Assassins and takes place sometime after it (a few years, I think?). Although this can be read as a standalone, there are a few references to characters and events here and there that will make more sense if you've read Three Assassins first.

As in Three Assassins, there was a lot going on in this, and a lot of moving pieces involved. To help readers try to keep track, the author even included a diagram of the bullet train at the start of each chapter, and marked which cars that characters from that chapter were in. 

I read this before watching the movie. The movie follows the tone and events of the book better than I expected...up until the end, at which point it added explosions that didn't exist in the book in an effort to make everything bigger and flashier. The movie also ruined what I thought was one of the book's best reveals. If you have to choose one or the other, I definitely recommend the book over the movie.

Anyway, this was a fun, weird, and slick read. Although this was technically filled with killers, the only character I truly disliked, for the most part, was the Prince. I very much wanted to see that little monster finally suffer some consequences for his horrible actions. Meanwhile, it was easy to forget that Tangerine and Lemon were supposed to be dangerous, considering they spent so much on-page time bickering and talking about Thomas and Friends. And Nanao honestly seemed like a fairly decent guy, despite his profession.

I liked the way that having most of the characters and action trapped on the bullet train concentrated the various storylines. Even though the connections between everything weren't always immediately apparent, having everything happen on the bullet train made it easy to see that everyone would be forced to cross paths sooner or later.

I just learned that there's a third book available in English after this one (and a fourth book, soon to be released!). I definitely plan on reading it.