Lady Joker, Volume One

It's difficult to rate a book that's an incomplete story. The “Volume 1” isn't just an aesthetic titling choice here – this is one half of a story that doesn't stand up as a piece on its own, cutting off on a cliffhanger with no resolution for any of its storylines or characters. If I'd read the book without that foreknowledge and without having Volume 2 to hand, I'd be hopping mad.

But Volume 1 is still a good book. Kaoru Takamura's attention to detail is meticulous and forensic in a way that is truly impressive, albeit not always bags of fun. Pretty much the first half of the book is slow-burning setup of the characters' lives, career histories, and financial circumstances; it's serious, intricate, and almost documentarian in its approach.

Once the downward criminal spiral begins in earnest, unfolding in equally rigorous detail almost minute by minute, the effect is satisfying and immersive. You feel the weight of all the socio-economic and psychological factors behind the characters' decisions like a rolling boulder. And then it stops! Thankfully I've got Volume 2 ready to go.

Kaoru Takamura's Lady Joker (volume 1) took me a while to finish, but it's not because it's not good, it's just very long and very detailed. It's definitely a psychological thriller in the sense that almost everything you read happens in people's heads, rather than any outright action. It's pretty scathing about capitalism, the Japanese corporate culture and the “keiretsu” system, with corporations in bed with organized crime.

But it ended on a cliffhanger, so even after 600 pages, I have no idea how it will end. Volume 2 will have all the answers i guess