this story is distinctly death note without any death notes involved.
Probably you already know what is going to happen in this story since there's a high chance that you have spoiled yourself of all the events and characters by watching youtubers but, let me to tell you that reading this lightnovel was a completely different experience. I'll keep the spoilers as little as possible in this review.
So starting off, we have to ignore some inconsistent details like mello being the narrator, that is just a stylistic choice made by NISIOISIN. The direction that nisioisin taken with this is magnificent. the pacing it takes to move from one details to another is really interesting - the 1st chapter ends in a cliffhanger that you could never guess even in your wildest imaginations. As the story goes on, it reveals more tension and quirky aspects of Beyond birthday. I can't help but feel there's something unique about him - he is unsettling, i cannot look at him as a human at all. Like how anyone would feel towards a 'skinwalker', a creature that decieves people for ulterior motives, that's what I felt towards BB. But that doesn't mean the story is always grim. The tone of the story coexists with humor quite well, which is suprising considering the contents. Nisioisin adds his typical referencing of other medias, 4th wall breaks, and literature-related lines as he always does and i strongly believe that, this spin off stands on its own two legs. the logic has some holes but since the story tries to be independent while also relying on the main story to some extent, it's only natural that there would be some holes left to be questioned. this doesn't include the murder hints or puzzles, which were wonderfully crafted, what I had meant were the supernatural elements present in the story. but this can be easily overlooked though, as the strength of this lightnovel is the tension surrounding Naomi Misora figuring out the meaning of all the horrendous acts committed by BB, to directly oppose L than to question, for example, the extent of shinigami's powers like one can do in the main story. Infact, those said powers doesn't interfere with the story's path at all. It just existed even before the story ever began and therefore, justified. Ofcourse, to give you the actual reason would amount to going into the spoilers territory but it really doesn't matter like it did in the main story. I only brought this up because I have a obligation to inform you, but this shouldn't hinder your experience. As fate fans often say to convoluted things in their series, 'dont worry about it'.
if you want to know if this is spin off novel is right for you to spend time reading, then ask yourself this: 'do i care about wammy's house and it's members?'. Because frankly put, it involves the past predecessors of L, challenging him to a duel of wits. It's a murder mystery, a splendid one at that, but much of the scenes doesn't have L directly involved. He operates through Naomi Misora, who's the main character here, and L takes on a more psychological role. Personally, it's fine by me since I'm one of those who liked every single character from the original death note, including Wammy's house orphans but i just wanted to let you know this to not mislead you into a experience that you didn't sign up for.
I've kept the spoilers to the bare minimum and avoided talking in detail about the hints, clues and the murders, as it takes away the fun if i do that in the review, but just know that it'll exceed your expectations from start to finish. I couldn't give it anything less than a 100/100 since I love the series thoroughly but it's more like a 8.5/10 in the eyes of a casual enjoyer of death note series.
P.S. NISIOISIN have left out 2 more stories to be narrated by Mello: (1) The Infamous Bio-Terror Case, solved in a detective war between the 3 greatest detectives - L, X, Z of Wammy's house. (2) And the Winchester Mad Bombings case, solved by then 8 year old L when he first met Watari of the Wammy's house.
None of these stories had been published so we might never know if they ever will be. Only time will tell.
BONUS: ▶ this fan-made OST is the 'perfect' BB theme in my opinion. it's so perfect whether by intention or not, it actually follows the pattern of inter-mixing related character themes inside another character's theme, just like the original soundtracks used in the anime. ▶ ▶
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