I don't know that "enjoyable" is the proper term to use in describing this true crime novel, but it was certainly fascinating.
Lucie Blackman was a young British woman who went missing in Tokyo. This story is told by a journalist who was on hand from the beginning. There are many bizarre tangents that make this a colorful story, and of course it is sad and tragic when the reader finally learns her fate.

3.5 stars

News articles about missing and murdered people hint at what the victim's loved ones are feeling, but Richard Lloyd Parry delves deeper into how such tragic events affect the people who knew the victim. I don't read a lot of true crime, especially those works dealing with sexual assault, because they seem to focus more on the potentially titillating aspects of the events than on anything else. This book overcomes the genre's pitfalls by exposing the rapes Obara committed as desperate, furtive acts, their descriptions completely devoid of any intent to arouse. By handling the sexual assaults in this manner, and by exposing Obara, rather than seemingly praising him for any genius he may possess, Parry grants dignity to Obara's victims that I find is often lacking from many true (and fictional) crime books. By narrating what Lucie's loved ones were experiencing, Parry makes sure his readers know that no violent crime is an isolated event; no victim dies without leaving a vacuum where a person once lived.

This is a really good look at a crime and the affect/effects of the crime on the people involved. Llyod Perry's reporting is humane, but he doesn't make people into saints. He also looks at how society views the family of the dead.

I couldn’t do it. I got about halfway through and even the details of the crime couldn’t keep me interested anymore. The author would take detours into describing the political history of different populations in Japan, which normally would be fine and interesting, but they felt like distractions from the real narrative.

This is the Japanese cousin to the Monster of Florence. Something about it wasn't as addicting of as affecting as that book for me.

By far the best book that I've read for quite a while.
Touching, chilling, sad and entertaining, all at once.
Mo Hayder is quoted on the cover, saying the this book comes with a cast-iron guarantee that you'll read to the very end - I'll tell you, that's not an exaggeration.
Read it. Now.

2nd book by Parry. He tells this story with so much empathy and kindness. Truly a gifted one of a kind journalist.

I was drawn in by the title, but the title was very misleading. Who are the people who eat darkness? I still don't know.

The book was interesting enough, although I felt it took too long to get to the fireworks factory, so to speak. I didn't need that much background on the victim, she just seemed like a regular chick and stuff about what she was like as a kid didn't add much. The parts about Japan and hostessing were interesting, even if I already knew some of it.

This was an OK true crime book, I don't read a lot of these so I can't say if it is more or less tedious than your average true crime read.