Summary from GoodReads:

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects – and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal…or his life?

My Review:

It’s my experience that, although short and easy to read in one setting, a good manga will force the reader to slow down and savor the story, not just through the words but through the graphics.

It wasn’t the graphics that slowed me down with Death Note, however, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a “good” manga.  What made this one different from others I read was the engaging, frightening social aspects of the story.  While I could understand what Light’s intentions were at the beginning of the story, as he became more and more embroiled in what he was doing I became more and more tortured inside.  And then there’s the emergence of L – the counterpart to Light.

I thought I would dislike L, but as this game of chess continues through the story I am growing to enjoy him more and more.  I am really excited to continue the story in the next two volumes and to find out the conclusion (I hope!) of this puzzling, exciting and fascinating story.

Volumes 1 & 2 of the Black Edition of Death Note are fantastically bound and really bring the story together in a more cohesive manner than picking up four separate books of the story.  I felt as if I was actually reading novels rather than graphic novels which I appreciated.

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