“Book Girl and the Scribe Who Faced God, Part 2” Review

Warning: If you have not read “Book Girl and the Scribe Who Faced God, Part 2,” do not read this review if you want to avoid spoilers. However, if you don’t mind spoilers or already read the book, go ahead and read this!

I’m back with another book review, and WOW! I’ve finally reached the end of the main Book Girl series by Mizuki Nomura, as it finishes with “Book Girl and the Scribe Who Faced God, Part 2!” It was absolutely amazing to read and review this whole series, and I’m glad I kept reading it until the end. Here’s a summary so we know what this final book in the main series is about:

“”I am Tohko Amano. As you can see, I am a book girl.” “You don’t have to write. I’ll stay with you.” Nanase’s words may have saved Konoha, but Ryuto’s words only trouble his heart once more: “I might break Kotobuki.” And just after, Tohko vanishes. All that remains in her empty house is a shredded school uniform. Can Konoha follow her? What answer will he find as the truth gradually comes to light? Tohko’s prayer, Kanako’s hatred, Ryuto’s anguish – the story hidden at the root of them all is about to be revealed! The bold final episode of Book Girl!”

As I discussed in Part 1 regarding the plotline, I was slightly disappointed last time with the lack of conclusion, but Part 2 thankfully wraps this all up nicely. Poor Konoha is stuck with his own internal struggles, as well as many of the other characters such as Tohko, Ryuto, and even Chia Takeda from the first book to an extent, as well as Kotobuki. I’m glad all of these situations were resolved by the end, and despite the smaller but multiple subplots of Ryuto and other supporting/minor characters there was always still a main story that kept everyone together, which was nice.

Continuity nods were also a huge thing that happened in this book. There were even throwbacks to as early as “The Suicidal Mime” and “The Famished Spirit!” I can’t talk about these too much, mainly because that would spoil the rest of the books in this series, but they were wonderful to read and think, “oh yeah, I remember this happening a while back” or “Hey, it’s this character again! Welcome back!”

Tohko as a character was rather interesting to see throughout this final book. Usually it was her that gave out the big reveals about the main mysteries in past books, so it was surprise for me to see that this time Tohko was the one being shocked by the big reveal while Konoha got his chance to give answers to all the questions. I don’t think it’s any regression of Tohko character-wise, because it emphasizes Konoha’s growth, and if I were Tohko in her situation during this book and the previous one I’d probably react the same way.

It’s unfortunate that Kotobuki and Konoha ended up breaking up close to the end of the book, especially after all the build-up the rest of the series developed for them, but given the entire situation at hand during the last two books, I don’t blame them for doing so. It is Kotobuki that encouraged Konoha not to write if he didn’t want to, but now that Konoha is now less wishy-washy about his decision-making than he was for the last book and chooses to keep writing once more, something Tohko encouraged him to do, this was the critical decision that led to their breakup. It’s good to see, however, that by the time of the epilogue (6 years after the main events), that they’re still good friends and they forgive each other for the whole mess.

Speaking of Konoha and his decision to continue writing, and thus in a way being Tohko’s “author” as I somewhat discussed last time, I’m glad that he was able to make his own choice, not because of the pressure of others but because he independently chose to do so. This shows a really great breakthrough for Konoha past his earlier inability to fully commit to a decision, and I’m glad he was given this internal resolution. Did it result in the breakup with Kotobuki? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes, as he’s revealed by the epilogue to have published another book under his penname and that it became widely popular. And even better is the fact that Konoha now loves to write, too! I’m happy for him and what he accomplished in the series.

As for Konoha and Tohko’s relationship, I was floored when they kissed in the book just before Tohko left for university, and that it’s implied at the end of the epilogue that they now reunited. I was happy with them being either friendly or romantic either way, but the way they were written to become romantic was rather well-done. I admittedly cried a little during their kiss scene, because the emotion put into it was so well-written, and I’m glad they reunited in the epilogue as well.

Overall, I’d rate this book 5 out of 5 stars!

This is because it brought such a satisfying ending to the whole main series and characters involved as well. I heard there are other side stories and short story collections that were also written for this series, and I hope to get my hands on those to read and review in the future.

As for the series as a whole, I’d definitely rate it 5 out of 5 stars overall for the amazing character development, flowing continuity nods, the huge amount of literary references and how they intertwined with the main plots of each book! I would highly recommend reading this series to anyone who likes books, happy endings (though they don’t necessarily happen in every book in the series), and a good amount of mystery as well as the other points I mentioned earlier! Thank you to everyone who’s read through all my reviews for this light novel series!