by Jun Mochizuki, 180 pages Break intentionally allows himself and Alice to be captured by the Cheshire Cat and returned to the Abyss. When Oz and Gil realize what's happened, they ask Sharon to use her legal contract with her chain to transport them there on a rescue mission. All four encounter memory fragments from their own pasts as well as from one another's, but Break is scarily proactive about making the most of his time there. As they battle the deadly Cheshire Cat and the dangers of their own psyches, they endeavor to discover some snippet of the truth of what happened 100 years ago when an entire chunk of a city was inexplicably swallowed into the Abyss and the family clans had their original falling out. But for Alice, remembering the past might be worse than forgetting it. Meanwhile, Vincent's taking advantage of Break's absence to do some scheming of his own.
Even the poor Cheshire Cat thinks he's doing the right thing. Part of the mystery here is just figuring out who the real villains are. There are a lot of characters just out to avenge their own personal grievances, but does that make them evil? And who is the mysterious Jack Vessalius, now only a living fragment of Alice's memories, who's helping Oz and Gil to find her before she's lost forever? Both the characters and the plot in this series are imaginatively complex. Even sweet little Oz has moments where the effects of his unhappy childhood and uncertain future creep out and surprise people. But then he giggles it all off as nothing and scampers away, leaving his companions (and the reader) even more nervous than before. Nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment