The Summer Hikaru Died by Mio Nukaga Original story by Mokumokuren

Yoshiki's best friend went missing in January five days later he reappeared from what felt like thin air. But the Hikaru that came back was nothing like the Hikaru that left, and when Yoshiki confronts him, he's not shocked to find out that something is wearing his best friend's body. 

This is nothing like what I expected, and honestly, I'm okay with that. The mystery of just what Hikaru *is* and whether or not he is this evil thing is genuinely going to keep me reading, not just the light novel series but start the manga as well. And the thing that really gets me is the story is kind of eluding the fact that there was something not good on the mountain so for Hikaru to just willy nilly invite any old thing to take care of his bestie seems wrong. And yeah, I could be way off the mark there, but it's only volume 1.

Yoshiki's reliance on both Hikaru's is interesting as well, and it almost justifies Hikaru's asking *anything* to stay by his side. Yoshiki doesn't want to be alone but it's not just that he doesn't want to be alone he only wants one person and thats Hikaru so as long as it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck he's pretty much able to accept any version of a duck. That's unhealthy, to say the least. Although with all of the talk about his family being just a tad bit dysfunctional, it makes sense. But what I think Yoshiki really needs is a counselor. 

Finally, what the heck is up with his sister? Even without the undead bestie and the unhealthy almost obsession Yoshiki has with him, all of the stuff with her not going to school would be enough to keep reading. Is she sick? Just spoiled like the villagers keep saying? Like wth? 

Overall, this isn't necessarily even creepy, yup even with Hikaru's weird insides, or at least this volume wasn't it's more like a mystery that just happens to have an undead guy in it and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

As always, thanks to NetGalley and Yen Press for the eArc!