The feast has begun, can you escape the village alive?
Погрузитесь в захватывающую психологическую историю ужасов, происходящую в уединенной японской деревне Ясумидзу. Тяжелый туман окружает это место, не давая никому уйти. Древние боги вернулись, чтобы открыть охоту на каждого из жителей деревни. Пир начался, сумеете выбраться из деревни живьем?
The novel is very good, but unfortunately, it's one of those novels that starts the narrative at a 10/10 rating and ends at a 6/10. And still, it is a pretty good read. It has good visuals, music, voice acting, atmosphere, plot, etc. Almost everything in it is executed at a very high level. Its main problem, as probably written in all the other reviews, is the ending. I won't talk about the pacing issues in this review (and everywhere else except the ending it's objectively pretty good), as that's a pretty subjective thing but will talk about others. In general, all of the minuses described here stem from a problem that could be called “over-ambition of the ending”. The writer, wanting to end his story as grandly and unexpectedly as possible, shoves a twist so steep and big into the plot that he doesn't even consider how much it will fit in. Further “revelations” about what's going on before the ending make things even worse and finally ruin the whole image of the novel. These plot twists feel alien to its world - artificial, created purely for shock factor and surprise. The ending with its [spoiler]huge monster, secret organizations[/spoiler] and almost not (or rather, just too non-obvious) forshadowed twists absolutely does not fit the atmosphere and in general the concept of the novel - a dark place filled with werewolves and distrust of each other. [spoiler]In one click of a button, the stakes of the plot jump from the lives of 16 people trapped in a settlement to the destruction of all of Japan (huge monster part) - it feels absurd and it is.[/spoiler] [spoiler]Furthermore, rethinking of everything that happened in the story before (that the whole feast is actually a fake) leaves a lot (really a lot) of plot holes. And the problem isn't even this twist (it worked fine in Umineko, for example. The twist in general is classic for paranormal murder mysteries genre), but the fact that the novel spent its entire plot convincing the reader that the mysticism surrounding the feast was indeed (!) true, despite the MC's initial doubts. The twist at the end, in which everything is suddenly reduced to "oops, it's all really fake! What a surprise!" feels cheap, because it contradicts everything the MC has been learning about the feast throughout the story and reveals very abruptly at the very end.[/spoiler] The ending itself somehow goes too easy for the MC - almost without any struggle at all. In some moments everything becomes even delusional [spoiler]and the enemies just give up and leave after “intellectual fight of false gods”. Although they can just kill everyone with guns and end it there.[/spoiler] And the last more subjective and not really important minus - the MC himself. He seems interesting at first, but then you quickly find him too perfect - almost self-insert. He doesn't suffer, isn't afraid, always knows what to do, doesn't panic, acts smarter than others. Is always a “magnet” for women, even though he doesn't really do anything for it. This works great in some comedy, rom-com or ecchi anime/novel (and sadly, in real life for some chosen) but not in a serious story. If he does something bad, he never gets the proper punishment. It's hard to really empathize for him. And what's more frustrating is that the novel is actually really (!) good, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone I could. It's good, but with a different ending it could have been almost perfect. Overall I can give it an 8/10. Recommended for purchase.