monster, vol. 3-18

monster, vol. 3-18
naoki urasawa
graphics/manga/suspense
viz media
published 1996-2001

Johan is a cold and calculating killer with a mysterious past, and brilliant Dr. Kenzo Tenma is the only one who can stop him!  Conspiracy and serial murder open the door to a compelling, intricately woven plot in this masterpiece manga thriller.

After sitting on my shelf and renewing them twice from the library I finally started reading these (after stopping at volume two and not reading much of anything) again.  I ended up tearing through them in a couple of days because I needed to know what happened!

The story flows so nicely.  You're caught in this twilight time.  It's not a tv show, it's not a novel, it's both.  The suspense is definitely edge-of-your-seat and with each cliffhanger ending you automatically start reaching for the next volume.

By the end, most questions are answered, though to me, seemingly the most important question wasn't.  Arrgh!  But I guess that's perfect that way.  It is truly a fantastic series.  Characters are rich and life like.  I can to care about characters I didn't think I would have in the beginning and by the time I got to the last volume I wanted to cheer or exclaim out loud.

Now that I'm done with this, I suppose, as I've been told, I should start on Pluto!  Library, here I come!