This one was really cool. I started with the Re[a]d Diary side, and I'm glad I did, but I don't really know if that's the side I was supposed to read first. I don't think it matters which order you choose. I do recommend reading the notes at the end of Re[a]d Diary at some point, unless you already know the deal with this book, which I didn't. I don't think I would have enjoyed it so much without knowing the idea behind splitting it the way they did. Good stuff.

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I read this without knowing anything about it other than I liked the cover art. I read the first and what turned out to be the original story translated from French and thought, good. Great art, fantastic painting-quality art and a somewhat muddled story about a biographer looking for information on an unknown artist who died in WWI. Then I got to the middle, where the first story ended and had to flip it over to read the other story, told with the same art by a different writer who had no knowledge of what the original story was about. I didn't know this until the end when I read the author's note so SPOILERS, I guess.
The concept behind the two stories is interesting and makes the work maybe more intriguing than if it didn't have this conceit. I like both stories about the same and thought they worked independently and created unintentional contrast and comparisons. Again the art is stunning. Overall not what I was expecting and I'm kind of glad I went into it blind, with no clue what was going on.
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