At Night, I Become a Monster

So the theme of this book is bullying, told from the perspective of a middle school student named Adachi. The one receiving bullying is his classmate, Yano Satsuki. Adachi himself is a bystander for the most part, which links to my biggest problem with this book. I hate it when a story that centers around bullying ends without a resolution, and that is exactly the case here.

Honestly, I might have enjoyed this a little more if only the main character isn't so indecisive. Adachi only makes a decision at the end, so the rest of the book is him sailing through all sorts of emotions while doing absolutely nothing about Yano's situation. It's super frustrating, and the fact that the depiction of bullying is so realistic only made it worse for me.

Still, the writing is so good in the poetic, introspective way. It conveys the conflicting thoughts and emotions really well, and it does show the message of how much of a monster humans can be. It just doesn't have a proper conclusion, so do keep that in mind if you're planning to pick this up.