440https://i.ur.com/qkSqMBD.png It should be noted that this manga is actually meant to be read left to right. Bibliomania is a horror manga by Obaru storyhttps://anilist.co/staff/195595/Obaru and Macchiro arthttps://anilist.co/staff/195594/Macchiro that is about a girl waking up in a strange manor and proceeding to try and find her way out of the manor by trapaising through the 431 rooms to make it room 000 which is where the entrance lies. I wasnt sure really what to expect from this manga. Despite the strange beginning of the manga prior to Alice waking up in the manor it didnt seem a terribly unique premise for a manga. 440https://i.ur.com/6BVUttv.png Ive always had a negative gut reaction to anything that looks to get by on weirdness alone. A character waking up in a literal white void and then being accosted by this wacky looking serpent when they tried to leave... I just had a bad feeling it was going to be one of those. Something thats weird just to be weird. But I was off the mark. Though dont get me wrong Bibliomanias very weird. 440https://i.ur.com/LUbEUvd.png But there is a story here. One that I dont necessarily want to spoil. At least not outside of a spoiler tag anyways. What really sells it though is definitely the art. I mean what got me to read the series in the first place was that cover image of Alices face rotting. As the serpent explained if an occupant of their room leaves it their body will start to rot. The more rooms Alice makes it through the worse her rotting gets. And later on shes rotted so badly that she barely even resembles a human and it is just wonderful. 440https://i.ur.com/6g4f4f0.png Im a huge fan of body horror and all those pages of monster Alice were just absolutely great. The rooms themselves and stories of the occupants are pretty good too but the main thing I like about this manga is definitely Alice and the Serpent. The Serpent especially grew on me. As it acts as a Virgil to Alices Dante as she proceeds throughout the rooms and provides commentary on the various occupants she encounters. It was no twist that the Serpent was hiding something big from Alice. After all who would ever trust a talking Serpent in a suit? Especially after mentioning that the amount of guests he needs to have to start the party just happens to be 666. 440https://i.ur.com/ZxqNMN3.png But thats not to say there isnt anything unsettling about Alice as well. Theres just something off about her and the way she acts. Thats without even mentioning that we also keep cutting to before when Alice entered the book and its her wandering the world which seems to be already completely destroyed. 440https://i.ur.com/rYXJFH7.png WARNING: MASSIVE SERIES RUINING SPOILERS AHEAD. DO NOT CLICK IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE MANGA. Conclusion 500https://i.ur.com/ontqk87.png What a nice surprise this manga ended up being. Really was just in it for the art. My primary recommendation with this manga is if you do read it maybe read it a second time. I wasnt able to read it in one sitting the first time through but even then there were a whole bunch of more details I just completely overlooked because I was just gawking at the art in general. It just barely misses the level of being a new favorite for me. Bibliomanias a 9 out of 10. 440https://i.ur.com/GrKA0Et.png