this story is distinctly death note without any death notes involved. Probably you already know what is going to happen in this story since theres a high chance that you have spoiled yourself of all the events and characters by watching rs but let me to tell you that reading this lightnovel was a completely different experience. Ill keep the spoilers as little as possible in this review. So starting off we have to ignore some inconsistent details like mello being the narrator that is just a stylistic choice made by NISIOISIN. The direction that nisioisin taken with this is magnificent. the pacing it takes to move from one details to another is really interesting the 1st chapter ends in a cliffhanger that you could never guess even in your wildest imaginations. As the story goes on it reveals more tension and quirky aspects of Beyond birthday. I cant help but feel theres something unique about him he is unsettling i cannot look at him as a human at all. Like how anyone would feel towards a skinwalker a creature that decieves people for ulterior motives thats what I felt towards BB. But that doesnt mean the story is always grim. The tone of the story coexists with humor quite well which is suprising considering the contents. Nisioisin adds his typical referencing of other medias 4th wall breaks and literaturerelated lines as he always does and i strongly believe that this spin off stands on its own two legs. the logic has some holes but since the story tries to be independent while also relying on the main story to some extent its only natural that there would be some holes left to be questioned. this doesnt include the murder hints or puzzles which were wonderfully crafted what I had meant were the supernatural elements present in the story. but this can be easily overlooked though as the strength of this lightnovel is the tension surrounding Naomi Misora figuring out the meaning of all the horrendous acts committed by BB to directly oppose L than to question for example the extent of shinigamis powers like one can do in the main story. Infact those said powers doesnt interfere with the storys path at all. It just existed even before the story ever began and therefore justified. Ofcourse to give you the actual reason would amount to going into the spoilers territory but it really doesnt matter like it did in the main story. I only brought this up because I have a obligation to inform you but this shouldnt hinder your experience. As fate fans often say to convoluted things in their series dont worry about it. if you want to know if this is spin off novel is right for you to spend time reading then ask yourself this: do i care about wammys house and its members?. Because frankly put it involves the past predecessors of L challenging him to a duel of wits. Its a murder mystery a splendid one at that but much of the scenes doesnt have L directly involved. He operates through Naomi Misora whos the main character here and L takes on a more psychological role. Personally its fine by me since Im one of those who liked every single character from the original death note including Wammys house orphans but i just wanted to let you know this to not mislead you into a experience that you didnt sign up for. Ive kept the spoilers to the bare minimum and avoided talking in detail about the hints clues and the murders as it takes away the fun if i do that in the review but just know that itll exceed your expectations from start to finish. I couldnt give it anything less than a 100/100 since I love the series thoroughly but its more like a 8.5/10 in the eyes of a casual enjoyer of death note series. P.S. NISIOISIN have left out 2 more stories to be narrated by Mello: 1 The Infamous BioTerror Case solved in a detective war between the 3 greatest detectives L X Z of Wammys house. 2 And the Winchester Mad Bombings case solved by then 8 year old L when he first met Watari of the Wammys house. None of these stories had been published so we might never know if they ever will be. Only time will tell. BONUS: https://m..com/watch?v=iwHt6KWP6Fw this fanmade OST is the perfect BB theme in my opinion. its so perfect whether by intention or not it actually follows the pattern of intermixing related character themes inside another characters theme just like the original soundtracks used in the anime. YouTubehttps://www..com/watch?v=Wv47lVE2R2A YouTubehttps://m..com/watch?v=zj2qVKMjzIpp=ygUJTCB0aGVtZSBC Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts and suggestions in a private message on my profile.