Bullet Train is a 2010 novel written by Kotaro Isaka. The novel received rave reviews not only in Japan but internationally as well. It's success caused a stage play as well as a 2022 American remake starring Brad Pitt. Other forms of media such as a manga was also created. Bullet Train is one book in a series of three.
A group of assassins all board one train with different goals in mind. Some of these men know each other while, others cross paths for the first time. They try to outwit each other as the train reachesit's destination.
I'm going to be completely straight to the point. I didn't love Bullet Train. No matter how much I held in there to keep reading. I even tried to make excuses for why other people loved this novel while I did not. The plot is shown from the perspective of several different characters. honestly, not every character is really all that interesting and I could care less about a man's love for a child's cartoon about trains. Every aspect of the beginning is slow. Then continues to slug along until about the middle of the book. Even then, the meat of the book isn't good enough to warrant me having to read such a slow detailed start. The only character that was really interesting was The Prince. He has a dark complexity that really gave Bullet Train flavor during an overall bland core story. I ended out skipping through the book after awhile because I couldn't take it anymore. I've started reading Three Assassins which already seems like a major improvement from this novel. Only time will tell......
Bullet Train would have been a better read had the story just focused on one character. Readers really don't always need to know whats going on inside every single character's head. several points of view works for some stories but not for all stories.
SIDE NOTE: I would love to see a Japanese live action version of Bullet Train.
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