At Night, I Become a Monster

De: Yoru Sumino

Narrado por: Michael Crouch

FEAR NOT THE DARK

Every night, Adachi transforms into a nightmarish creature--and every morning, he reverts to human form. When he encounters his ostracized classmate Yano Satsuki in his monstrous state, the two develop a peculiar bond. But daylight brings its own form of terrors. Which is worse, the monsters at night, or the cruel realities of the classroom by day?

©2016 Yoru Sumino (P)2016 Yoru Sumino

Hmmm

So far, I have read two other works by this author and found both of them to be moving and masterful. However, no book can resonate with everyone, and this one definitely fell short for me. I think the main problem with it for me is one simply of cultural differences. In general, Japanese culture tends to favor unity and indirectness. As such, it gives rise to the phenomenon highlighted in this book, which is sort of a cross between peer pressure, pack mentality, and bullying. Essentially, in an effort to fit in, sometimes a student who makes a mistake or does not fit in will become shunned and picked on, and no one comes to their defense because that would make them different too, and as such, open themselves up to the same treatment and no longer being one of the group.

As a Westerner who is at least passably aware of all this, I can logically follow along with the story but emotionally and experience-wise, it just reads like a classroom full of psychopaths and a boy who slowly starts to see that, hey, maybe being a psycho is a bad thing.

I think it is still a good book and the female lead character is super interesting. The male lead, well, you pretty much want to hit him with a stick throughout the story but then again, that's the point. Overall, I think it is worth a read but if you are not a native Japanese person then don't expect it to move you much as it probably should.