狼と狐の夜

by 高遠琉加, ヨネダコウ (イラスト)

「再会したのはたぶん偶然じゃない」

あいつは俺が知っている男か?
JR新橋駅近くで店を持つ桐島司郎は、澤乃組の飴屋が経営する消費者金融に借金を返すため日々働いている。そんなある日、飴屋から破格のアルバイトを提案される。報酬は五百万円。五日後に結婚式を挙げる花婿の二十四時間つきっきりのボディガードだ。ヤクザは大嫌いだし、そんな仕事はろくでもないものに決まってる。そうわかっていても日々の生活のため、しかたなく提案を受けたのだが、現れたのは司郎が忘れることのできない男だった! ?

207 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2012

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uh~ I completely understand the lukewarm reviews for this. It's a yakuza story written by someone who obviously cannot write yakuza stories. The whole thing is all over the place, and there's too much exposition and the plot is reaaaaaally contrived. Add to that the uke's backstory is never revealed - clearly leaving room for a sequel that is probably never going to happen because this is not a good novel. Which hurts all the more because she obviously can write! I loved her descriptions of Tokyo, and some musing were really poetic. But it's no point if it doesn't come together as a whole and it really doesn't here. And don't get me started on the final sex scene. It's been a while since I've read something that felt that tacked on.

I bought this ages ago because of Yoneda Kou's illustrations, and while they are pretty, I do think her strengths are as a mangaka rather than as an lillustrator (which is fine because her manga are absolutely fantastic).

I am intrigued enough by Takatou Ruka's writing to want to read one of her higher rated series though. But this goes to show that you shouldn't be forced to write something you clearly aren't made for. I know Shy Novels has a lot of yakuza stuff but... well. I'm not a big fan of it in the first place so no wonder a badly written story failed to move me.

(And while I loved the main character, you really don't get why he falls for the uke. Like, you get why he's supposed to fall for the uke but you don't feel it at all.) All right, I'll stop complaining now.