What do you think?
Rate this book
Hell Is Dark with No Flowers #2
Hell Is Dark with No Flowers, Vol. 2
A letter hinting at an impending murder and dismemberment is delivered to Shiroshi’s door, and he and Seiji set out to investigate. They find themselves venturing to a remote island dominated by a towering Baroque mansion, where all manner of surprises await them — including a beautiful living doll and a young boy who calls himself Shiroshi’s brother!
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 24, 2018
4 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 15, 2021
Outline of the story: An unemployed, homeless young man stumbled upon a strange estate with a strange young man and his female assistant living inside. The pair agreed to allow the young man to stay and help out since the young man possessed a rare ability to see people's crime: sinners who had escaped justice would appear to the young man as yokai or monsters.
This time our main characters were summoned to a remote island manor by a strange letter, which foretold a gruesome murder case. The manor was owned by an eerie doll maker and his daughter, ten years ago, a freak accident took place on this island and the doll maker's wife was found died whilst the daughter was deeply traumatized, but what exactly had happened in that fatal night?
Meanwhile, a young boy showing up and claimed he is the MC's long lost younger brother, but was it the true?
I have to admit the characters are pretty flat and unmemorable (expects the two MCs and this rival guy) but the main murder mystery is doing great! For example, I like how the MCs can't detect who is the sinner this time because I pretty much can't see it coming. Then it's also hints that the . I'm excited to see what will happen next!
I really like what the author has offered so far!
This time our main characters were summoned to a remote island manor by a strange letter, which foretold a gruesome murder case. The manor was owned by an eerie doll maker and his daughter, ten years ago, a freak accident took place on this island and the doll maker's wife was found died whilst the daughter was deeply traumatized, but what exactly had happened in that fatal night?
Meanwhile, a young boy showing up and claimed he is the MC's long lost younger brother, but was it the true?
I have to admit the characters are pretty flat and unmemorable (expects the two MCs and this rival guy) but the main murder mystery is doing great! For example, I like how the MCs can't detect who is the sinner this time because I pretty much can't see it coming. Then it's also hints that the . I'm excited to see what will happen next!
I really like what the author has offered so far!
March 25, 2025
On the way to the store from a certain mansion, Seiji is attacked by a young woman attempting to find the mansion and it's master. This is bad enough but then he is attacked again by a young man who drops a bombshell on both Seiji and Shiroshi; his name is Aka and he's not only Shiroshi's youngest brother he's angling for Seiji's job and if Seiji has to die for him to get it, well, that's even better. To make matters worse, Shiroshi receives a summons to a mystery island requesting he join the occupants to witness a dismemberment...
This volume delves a bit more into Shiroshi's background and how he ends up becoming Gorouzaemon's heir. It's not pretty and is almost identical to Odoro's story, which is extremely sad, especially since I can't imagine Shiroshi would have wanted to become heir in that manner. I feel bad for him, and honestly, after this volume, I'm more than positive that Seiji is the brother he needed all along, and Shiroshi just didn't notice it.
The mystery in this one is an actual locked room mystery that clearly pulls from Christie's And Then There Were None, but is so much more twisted than hers. We again have another extremely messed up family, except this time, there seems to be some sort of outside force leading them to do things that they otherwise may have thought about but never acted on. Although, I will say I do not blame Riko in the least, not even a little bit. You'll get this when you read it, but trust me Riko snapping was only a matter of time, what she does afterwards, however, is something I don't believe she would have done without this outside influence.
I genuinely can't recommend this series enough, and if you follow me on Bluesky, you are probably getting sick of me talking about it, but it's truly an exceptional nod to the classics in this genre.
This volume delves a bit more into Shiroshi's background and how he ends up becoming Gorouzaemon's heir. It's not pretty and is almost identical to Odoro's story, which is extremely sad, especially since I can't imagine Shiroshi would have wanted to become heir in that manner. I feel bad for him, and honestly, after this volume, I'm more than positive that Seiji is the brother he needed all along, and Shiroshi just didn't notice it.
The mystery in this one is an actual locked room mystery that clearly pulls from Christie's And Then There Were None, but is so much more twisted than hers. We again have another extremely messed up family, except this time, there seems to be some sort of outside force leading them to do things that they otherwise may have thought about but never acted on. Although, I will say I do not blame Riko in the least, not even a little bit. You'll get this when you read it, but trust me Riko snapping was only a matter of time, what she does afterwards, however, is something I don't believe she would have done without this outside influence.
I genuinely can't recommend this series enough, and if you follow me on Bluesky, you are probably getting sick of me talking about it, but it's truly an exceptional nod to the classics in this genre.
February 6, 2025
Reading this after a pretty badly written mystery was probably a wise decision: it made it visible how carefully plotted and intelligent this series is.
We have a single mystery this time, with the characters tying in really tightly together, and lots of hints packed into each scene. The best part, for me, was the slow unveiling of Shiroshi's feelings. To Seiji, he initially seems like a beautiful, brilliant, emotionless, mystical being who doesn't particularly care about anything or anyone. Seiji, in particular, is just a plaything - all the other supernaturals refer to him as Shiroshi's "pet," rather than the "assistant" he was theoretically hired to be.
But even Seiji can't stay oblivious forever; he notices things, like Shiroshi staying by his side for hours after his injury, despite pretending he'd only been there for a few minutes. Or the way Shiroshi is always ruffling his hair and patting his back and pulling him out of danger moments before disaster strikes. He cares about Seiji so, so much, and by the end of this volume, he is (probably still a little too subtly for Seiji) referring to him as "family."
As a "halfbreed" oni, Shiroshi doesn't belong anywhere - not in the human world, and not with the oni who look down on him. He's the heir to the King of Hell, and he's supposed to be running his proxy service quickly enough to win the competition and take that role - the one that all 31 of his brothers had died for. Not, like with Odoro, who killed his own brothers - it was Shiroshi's father who slaughtered all his other children, to fulfill Shiroshi's human mother's dying wish.
Shiroshi never wanted the title or the role; he would've rather had an assortment of family members who doted on him. But that choice was taken away from him as a child, and he has to live with the consequences, and all the hatred it brought.
The mystery in this volume honestly isn't all that important; it's a framework for Shiroshi and Odoro to work through some of their issues - working together, despite their deep dislike of each other. Odoro, anyway, dislikes Shiroshi. I'm not sure Shiroshi cares about him enough to label his feelings that way.
It's just a really interesting, complex story with a ton of subtext that feeds into a much larger story. So fascinating. I'm excited about this series.
We have a single mystery this time, with the characters tying in really tightly together, and lots of hints packed into each scene. The best part, for me, was the slow unveiling of Shiroshi's feelings. To Seiji, he initially seems like a beautiful, brilliant, emotionless, mystical being who doesn't particularly care about anything or anyone. Seiji, in particular, is just a plaything - all the other supernaturals refer to him as Shiroshi's "pet," rather than the "assistant" he was theoretically hired to be.
But even Seiji can't stay oblivious forever; he notices things, like Shiroshi staying by his side for hours after his injury, despite pretending he'd only been there for a few minutes. Or the way Shiroshi is always ruffling his hair and patting his back and pulling him out of danger moments before disaster strikes. He cares about Seiji so, so much, and by the end of this volume, he is (probably still a little too subtly for Seiji) referring to him as "family."
As a "halfbreed" oni, Shiroshi doesn't belong anywhere - not in the human world, and not with the oni who look down on him. He's the heir to the King of Hell, and he's supposed to be running his proxy service quickly enough to win the competition and take that role - the one that all 31 of his brothers had died for. Not, like with Odoro, who killed his own brothers - it was Shiroshi's father who slaughtered all his other children, to fulfill Shiroshi's human mother's dying wish.
Shiroshi never wanted the title or the role; he would've rather had an assortment of family members who doted on him. But that choice was taken away from him as a child, and he has to live with the consequences, and all the hatred it brought.
The mystery in this volume honestly isn't all that important; it's a framework for Shiroshi and Odoro to work through some of their issues - working together, despite their deep dislike of each other. Odoro, anyway, dislikes Shiroshi. I'm not sure Shiroshi cares about him enough to label his feelings that way.
It's just a really interesting, complex story with a ton of subtext that feeds into a much larger story. So fascinating. I'm excited about this series.
February 5, 2025
Oh, this volume is truly a page-turner! I finished it in a matter of hours (with 7 hours of sleep in-between). This time, the story is basically a honkai-style murder mystery: Shiroshi and Seiji came to a European-style mansion in a small island, cut off from the main island for the night by a violent storm, then someone died... but as stories like this usually go, it's not just someone.
What I like is that despite the involvement of yokai and other elements of Hell (Shiroshi one of them), the murder mystery is still something that is plausible within human realms. The killings did not happen in a supernatural way, although supernaturals are clearly involved. And despite all the violent and the gore (honestly, I'd have been disappointed if this series sells itself as something about sins and demons and Hell but greatly tones down it all). The killings of the humans is a human story, but behind it all greater mysteries and messy politics of Hell lie as the red string that holds the series together.
What I like is that despite the involvement of yokai and other elements of Hell (Shiroshi one of them), the murder mystery is still something that is plausible within human realms. The killings did not happen in a supernatural way, although supernaturals are clearly involved. And despite all the violent and the gore (honestly, I'd have been disappointed if this series sells itself as something about sins and demons and Hell but greatly tones down it all). The killings of the humans is a human story, but behind it all greater mysteries and messy politics of Hell lie as the red string that holds the series together.
December 4, 2021
Not as heart breaking as the book 1 of the series. But the comedy continues. The banter between Seiji and Shiroshi is hilarious and they are also both a little bit sad with their own backgrounds. The perfect balance between humour, drama, and horror. Moving onto book 3.
November 11, 2024
前作読んでからだいぶ間が空いちゃったけど、読んでいるうちに設定等だんだん思い出してきたので特に問題なく読めた。最後の方はちょっと切ない気持ちになった。そしてエピローグ、これは続きが気になる。
June 15, 2025
The second volume sees the return of our heroes, Shiroshi and Seiji, the competition in the form of Odoro, and a wild card in the form of Aka, Shiroshi's sociopath brother. Our heroes are trapped by a typhoon in a semi-deserted island manor inhabited by an insane doll-maker who dresses up like a plague doctor, having been drawn there by a letter declaring that “On the nineteenth of August, a dismemberment will occur at Hotel Isola Bella. I promise this single night will spell the end of this Hell more beautiful than Heaven. I invite you to witness it.”
I give light novels a lot of crap, but I do think that there's a sort of unreality about them, as a medium, that lets them sometimes get away with stuff that other books probably couldn't. If I were reading a “standard” mystery, even I, who love authors like John Dickson Carr, might raise my eyebrows slightly at the sheer excess of all this, and politely suggest that some of the tricks this novel plays are a bit unbelievable. Here, with our teenage demon protagonist and his comedy loser sidekick, it feels like there's no room for considerations like that, so we can wallow in the spectacle.
And in spite of its excesses, there's some genuine darkness and thoughtfulness peeking out through the goofiness. Seiji's guilt at not supporting his friend couldn't really come through in the first volume, because the author wanted to leave the question of why he was drawn to Shiroshi's abode for the epilogue; here it can. The moral difference between Shiroshi and Odoro—that although Shiroshi is a demon who benefits from sending sinners to Hell, he would prefer that they repent and avoid that fate—was gestured at in the first book, but also in the first book, the bad guys were all complete monsters who all ended up in Hell. Questions of guilt are a lot more ambiguous here; can someone be so damaged that someone like Shiroshi cannot meaningfully judge them? I'm not pretending it's super deep, but a lot of light media wouldn't even gesture at the question.
One nitpick I have is that in this volume, the idea of killing supernatural beings is important; Shiroshi and Aka both seem, at various times, to be in physical danger. But also, Odoro got absolutely messed up in the first volume ...
Translator Taylor Engel continues to do a solid job. He seems to be an industry professional, with dozens of titles to his name. I just realized that he's also the translator of A Man and His Cat, which is funny to me, because the tone of that manga is not the tone of Hell Is Dark with No Flowers, I'll tell you that.
I give light novels a lot of crap, but I do think that there's a sort of unreality about them, as a medium, that lets them sometimes get away with stuff that other books probably couldn't. If I were reading a “standard” mystery, even I, who love authors like John Dickson Carr, might raise my eyebrows slightly at the sheer excess of all this, and politely suggest that some of the tricks this novel plays are a bit unbelievable. Here, with our teenage demon protagonist and his comedy loser sidekick, it feels like there's no room for considerations like that, so we can wallow in the spectacle.
And in spite of its excesses, there's some genuine darkness and thoughtfulness peeking out through the goofiness. Seiji's guilt at not supporting his friend couldn't really come through in the first volume, because the author wanted to leave the question of why he was drawn to Shiroshi's abode for the epilogue; here it can. The moral difference between Shiroshi and Odoro—that although Shiroshi is a demon who benefits from sending sinners to Hell, he would prefer that they repent and avoid that fate—was gestured at in the first book, but also in the first book, the bad guys were all complete monsters who all ended up in Hell. Questions of guilt are a lot more ambiguous here; can someone be so damaged that someone like Shiroshi cannot meaningfully judge them? I'm not pretending it's super deep, but a lot of light media wouldn't even gesture at the question.
One nitpick I have is that in this volume, the idea of killing supernatural beings is important; Shiroshi and Aka both seem, at various times, to be in physical danger. But also, Odoro got absolutely messed up in the first volume ...
Sharp tiger claws sank deeper into his breastbone. One of Odoro’s broken ribs had apparently pierced a lung, and he coughed up dark red blood. If he’d been human, he would have been dead ages ago.... and it doesn't seem to really matter, because, after all, he's a prince of the demon realm. From the situation just described, he simply "vanished, leaving behind a pool of dark blood," and in this book he's fine. Can you just ... shoot people like this and have it be effective?
Translator Taylor Engel continues to do a solid job. He seems to be an industry professional, with dozens of titles to his name. I just realized that he's also the translator of A Man and His Cat, which is funny to me, because the tone of that manga is not the tone of Hell Is Dark with No Flowers, I'll tell you that.
February 14, 2021
對我來說可有可無吧。詳細感想放在Blog裡。
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews