Holy fuck this is heart-pounding!

Anxiety: being in the perspective of Seiichi, every adult except her mother seems like a threatening figure. The mother is the true threat but has become so controlling that her false impressions, her physiognomy, appears to be the only thing that's true. He cannot do anything that will hurt mommy.

Identity: a high school classmate confesses her feelings to Seiichi through a lover letter. His mother discovers this and, as the girl leaves, begs him to never leave mommy. They rip the letter together.

Along with this, there are parallels between the girl sitting in Seiichi's bed and his mother sitting in his bed. He rejects the girl's advances because of the traumatic event he recently witnessed, but embraces his mother as they are in bed together. They even kiss. I believe this shows that Seiichi has lost his autonomy, an understanding of who he is and what he wants, because of his overbearing mother.

PTSD: there's so much emotional and mental abuse present (yes, being manipulative counts). I also stand on the idea that this feels very reflective with it's realistic yet uncanny presentation. The series feels like a set of horrible memories than a story that's happening now. It would also explain that title, "Blood on the Tracks" as the series describes a horrific incident that already passed but markedly left its evidence behind. ( )

My hold finally came in! I'm so glad that someone else has witnessed mom's unhinged behavior and immediately identified it as such but also v. scared for Fukiishi nowwww ( )

Read my review of the first book since I cover what I think of the series as a whole there.

https://www.librarything.com/work/24294951/reviews/241536883 ( )

At the end of the first volume, Seiichi Osabe's mother did a very bad thing. As tiny moments and looks elongate in very creepy ways, we start to see just how deep mama's bad goes.

I gulped this book down in just a few minutes. I'm so glad I have the next two volumes on hand. ( )