Before starting the review of the novel... Spoiler Warning for those who haven't read the novel.
Hmmm where do I start? There are so many things to talk about.
First of all... Let's talk about Mello being the narrator. Unfortunately, him being the narrator did not make any sense nor made the narrating any different.
The story told in Another Note takes place in 2002, L dies in 2004. Mello was 15 when L died, and he was still in Wammy's House. So, when did L see Mello and tell him the story about Beyond Birthday and 2 others? It does not make sense.
In the book, Mello speaks as if the battle between L and Kira was over. Of course, he might be referring to L being dead. But he made it sound like he was writing all this after everything was over and everyone knew who Kira was. But he did not actually see Kira die. He died 2 days before Kira did. So, when actually did Mello write Another Note?
The novel introduces Rue Ryuzaki as a side character. Ryuzaki presents himself as a private detective. Naomi is a bit suspicious of him at first, because he has strange manners (sitting around hugging his legs, eating sweets all the time and crawling around on the floor), but L tells her to work together with him, so she does.
The thing is, the reader (as the he is meant to be) immediately assumes that Ryuzaki is L. This makes sense, because not only does L present himself as "Ryuzaki" in Death Note, but the way he acts is also strikingly similar.
Of course, the author wants the reader to think that Ryuzaki is L, but Ryuzaki is actually Beyond Birthday, the killer. That would have been a great twist, had it only been logical. But it wasn't. Another Note clearly states that B.B. doesn't know L personnaly. Which means he doesn't know anything about his habits or about what he looks like. So how come he guessed all of it? - doesn't make sense.
Also throughout the book Misora and Ryuzaki (I mean B) work together to solve the three crimes B has commited. Most of the time, Misora was led by Ryuzaki to find the answers. Even the smallest stuff, she needed Ryuzaki's help. I was frustrated because that's not the image she represented in the manga. She was originally portrayed as a very clever woman. Her needing Ryuzaki's help in every step she took did not make sense. (I must add that I actually liked the setup of the crimes. I only did not like the way they were solved.)
This book could have been good if only the author had at least tried to be logical. I usually overlook that kind of thing, but in this novel, I simply couldn't. Death Note: Another Note was starts promising but end with failure.
