-*CONTENT WARNING: MANGA DISCUSSES & DEPICTS SELF HARM, ABUSE, ASSAULT, & BULLYING-* TL;DR: simply put -- this manga is incredible. if you can forgive the manga for it's artistic shortcomings it is WELL worth the read. its a well paced psychological thriller about a group of high school seniors facing their inner demons head of and coming out the other side better people. the story revolves around the flushed out development of all of the characters (which the manga does an excellent job of doing) and there are plenty of twists that keep the reader on their toes! while the story is dark and tense, itis littered with cheeky humor. would absolutely recommend it, especially if you like mysteries, thrillers, suspense, paranormal stories, and horror stories

SYNOPSIS: during the winter semester of their third year at a prestigious high school, a group of eight friends gather in the snow and are trapped in an empty school building. after realizing that they are the ONLY students at school, the topic of the recent suicide of another classmate comes up and the group realizes they have completely forgotten everything about their peer. a malice paranormal entity is out for the group, plucking them one by one. they all have to confront the inner demons of their past while searching for the name of their classmate in order to make it out of the school alive

ART (5/10): when i first started reading the manga, the art style did catch me off guard. it is very late 90s/early 2000s aesthetic that im just not used to seeing. amongst the MAIN characters, i feel like all of them are really well designed and they all stand out from each other however i did get a bit confused when the secondary characters were introduced because they looked more generic and i would confuse them for the mains every once in a while. the scenery was done tremendously well -- there was gore but it was a tasteful amount which is always appreciated. the scenes of the empty hallways and the rooms were super ominous and did a great job world building.

CHARACTERS (9/10): the story HINGES on the characters and how they confront and conquer their inner demons and eventually grow and develop. each character had a unique and complex backstory that i felt like was super flushed out and cohesive. there wasnt much fluff either, the story got right to the point of where each character is coming from, their struggles, how they have been coping, and what they are doing/will be doing to improve and move forward. it was all so wonderfully written and satisfying to see all of the characters grow and acknowledge their flaws for what they are.

STORY (9/10): the story was so captivating. i had such a fun time reading it -- it was very well paced; i never felt like the story was stagnant or that they were trying to kill time with fluff. everything was done so purposefully. the story is a twist on the mystery sub-genre of locked room murders; in the genre usually the group has to figure out of is the killer as people get plucked one by one. in this story, someone has already died, they need to remember who it was... as they get plucked one by one lol. it was super refreshing to see the genre presented this way -- i feel like, while the genre is always enjoyable to *me*, it can totally be seen as reptitive or unoriginal to someone else. again, a lot of the story hinges on the development of the characters, which they did an excellent job of doing. there was also a fair amount of twists which i always love because i didnt see any of them coming.

OVERALL (9/10): this story is the perfect balance of scary, tense, funny, and inspirational. it was so masterfully written and executed that i didnt even notice some of the artistic shortcomings. it was all meat, no fluff type of story that satisfyingly resolves itself and i really couldnt ask for more than that when it comes to manga.