Reading: TOKYO GHOUL, VOL. 1 - Sui Ishida

Prose (Story): Ken Kaneki, a shy-to-the-point-of-introverted collge student in modern-day Tokyo, often hangs out with his more popular, outgoing best friend in a cafe frequented by a girl he's secretly had a crush on. When fate seems to itervene, the two of them officially talking, Kaneki finds out her name is Rize, and she seems as interested in him as he is in her. But this is a Tokyo where humans share the streets and neighborhoods with ghouls - creatures who look, sound and act just like humans ... except for their insatiable appetite for human flesh. When Kaneki decides to walk Rize home that night, a deadly attack results in emergency surgery for the college student, who wakes up in the hospital safe and whole - and the world's first human/zombie hybrid. Caught between two worlds - neither of which he feels he belongs in - volume one of this bestselling, hugely-popular manga series covers Kaneki's difficult adjustment to the "rules and regulations" of a ghoul's life ... including trying to fight off his ever-growing craving for human flesh.

Don's (Review): Having heard so, so much about this series - and it's subsequent films and anime TV series - for years, I was thrilled to get my hands on this volume, and am happy to say it lived up to (even surpassed) all my expectations. The stark black-and-white artwork is stunning, story replete with characters that breathe to life on the page, and Sui Ishida does an amazing job of making Ken Kaneki, in so short a time, one of the most endearing characters I've read in a while. You feel for this guy and the new, visceral and gory world he has to maneuver in, his deepest desire only to be human again even as you bleed for the guy because it's never going to happen. Supporting characters are just as strong (and surprsing), and I found myself glued to every panel throughout, to the point of being genuinely upset when I was done, and there was no more to read beause I didn't have volume two (especially given the teaser to it at the end of volume one). Terrific, scary, heartbreaking, darkly comic - and, I think (would have to look through  the list to be sure), my favorite manga/graphic novel read of 2020.  5/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.