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Satomi's first person point of view is simultaneously an observant one but a self-concerned one. She does not struggle giving voice to either her opinions or the calm surface of her emotions, but the prose and its tension with her social interactions betray a more turbulent heart the novel alludes to throughout her relationships (her mother, Shinobu, Masayoshi, now Timothy).

Part II: Carnage is self-explanatory, but in the process of reconstructing the events that lead to and after murders, Evangelista paints a picture of how the carnage is justified, normalized, and thus dissected from its brutality and viscera. Paired with Part I: Memory, Carnage continues the trend of profiling how a culture has warped its view of human life, institutional law enforcement, and mortality.

Volume 2 serves as the 'down time' following Volume 1's cliffhanger and it precedes the climax of the original 二哈 Book 1. My impression of this volume so far is it values character study and relationship dynamics more so than progressing narrative plot (or the sequence of events). It's also the first time we seriously delve into Chu Wanning's POV and see it juxtapose Mo Ran's POV of the world and Chu Wanning himself.

Evangelista uses the first section (Memory) to profile Duterte: his genealogy and history, his opportunities, his persona, his politician friends and family, his Davao Death Squad, leading up to the 2016 national elections. Barring Chapter 1 setting the tone of strongarm violence, she chronicles Duterte's, Davao City's, and the Philippines' overlapping histories as equally complicit in the War on Drugs' toll.