[Cantide]

Just finished the novel a few minutes ago.

Spoiler:

It was very well written, and had an engaging plot and interesting characters... but I don't I'll ever read anything from Innocent Grey again. It was just so depressing. If I'd read it in a normal book, it wouldn't be half as bad, but going through the story over and over again to see the different routes, each time hoping that the new ending would be happier and each time being denied, was excruciating.

Going through the "true end" was the worst, because at least in all the previous routes, I could console myself by thinking that they weren't really canon, and that certainly the final route would set things right. My general thought process as I was reading it:

Maybe this time Tojiko won't have to die! Fuck.
OK, so Tojiko is doomed. But since this route is focused on Toko, maybe she won't get hit by that car! Fuck.
But maybe they won't have to amputate her limbs this time. Fuck.
Can she at least avoid getting abducted by a serial killer? Fuck.
Maybe Reiji will rescue her again, and they'll at least get to be together? Fuck.
Fine. Orihime dies, Tojiko dies, and both Tokos die. The only person Reiji can save is Kazuna, and he does that in half the other routes anyway. But this is the true end, so something special has to happen, right? Something to balance out all this tragedy. And that is... Toko making a painting of a bird coming out of a shell... gee whiz, that makes everything all better! Sure, Shinji is wandering the countryside killing people and chopping their limbs off while carrying Toko's head in an urn, but that doesn't matter, because she got to draw a picture of a bird!

If any more innocent Grey novels get translated and I get the urge to read them, I think I'll save myself time and money by just banging my head against the wall a few times instead.