Kirino delivers a masterful exploration of human society and its outcasts in this dark novel. Three girls who could not be more different attend high school together - the smart but average looking older sister, her unearthly gorgeous younger sister, and an acquaintance who cannot fit in despite her many desperate efforts. Their story bobs and weaves around the central narrative - what do you do when you perceive there is no place for you in society? How do you fill the gaps in your life when success is so elusive, especially for women, in a modern world? How are we oppressed by society's rules, and how are we oppressing ourselves? It's a thinking novel for cerebral readers who don't mind being shocked by truth laid bare amid the gritty lives of women in modern Japan.