Gwyn J.

Moving on to Volume 2 of Snow and Ink, it begins to dig into Neneo’s past a little bit more. Neneo keeps having flashbacks of his childhood, and also of everyone who had fallen ill. We see him with his brother Cis, and his mother. This volume is very dark compared to the first volume, as we learn more about Neneo. The scene with Neneo coming back to the village and finding his brother ill with the disease is pretty depressing. The virus that had spread through touch pretty much ate away their flesh, and everyone was still alive as it happened. Neneo had to watch his brother wither away in a very painful way. So it made sense of why Neneo did what he did to everyone.

What I like about Freya is, despite her flaws, she is determined to help Neneo and be there for him when he needs her. She and Halvard have noticed that Neneo’s health has gone downhill for quite some time. He would break into sweat, and have intense flashbacks. Even when he lashed out unintentionally, Freya told him she would stick by him.

With Volume 2, they finally made progress getting to Neneo’s village. Halvard brought Neneo and Freya to a cabin to stay in while they would go to the village in the morning. Halvard is able to get Neneo to talk to him about what actually happened after giving him medicine. Neneo explained that even though him and his brother had tried to call the doctor to come to the village, and waited for them to show up, but the doctor never arrived.

Neneo begins acting strangely on their hike to the village, and there are images of Neneo’s memories when his brother was laying on the floor, suffering in pain. Another image showed his hand, skin flaking off so bad you could see bone. Halvard explains to Freya that Neneo’s hallucinations are getting worse. Neneo lashes out at Freya when she tries to touch him. Neneo believes that she could catch the illness if they touched. Halvard jumps in to protect Freya from Neneo’s hit.

Once they reach the village, they found Cis’ skeletal remains, which were right where Neneo left him. They bury Cis, but Halvard also takes a few bone samples from Cis, and then samples from Neneo’s mother so he could do research when they went back home. Since he is a doctor, Halvard was fascinated by the whole incident. Halvard seems to be the character that adds a little humor to the story. He’s a doctor, yet he yells when he’s tired, or his feet hurt.

But after the visit, Neneo doesn’t seem to have hallucinations or flashbacks to all the horrible things he had done or witnessed. We learn more about Halvard and his profession, and Halvard even tells Neneo he can’t look down at him for what he did, because Halvard was just like him. Being a doctor, there were many terminal patients that Halvard could not help and one was not doing what a patient asks, such as killing them. “It’s a matter of ethics” he tells Neneo.

Now that Neneo has recovered for the most part, he takes Freya out on a date to a lake, since they still have troubles being in the public- such as Neneo’s tattoos and unemployed men always harassing Freya whenever they see her. Even just to a lake with Neneo satisfies Freya. But now they are able to take the time to get to know one another better. Freya opens up to Neneo about how she was raised, and what exactly happened to her downfall with the company.

Neneo tells her more about his mother and Cis and mentions they didn’t know their father. He and Cis thought it would be best not to ask, and Neneo realized his mother had them both when she was young. It’s nice to see the two main characters finally have a close conversation and spending time with one another without any distractions, or Neneo feeling tired or ill.

The ending reveals a little bit of what’s to come in the next volume. Neneo and Freya have battled through and survived Neneo’s tragic story. With Freya, her battle with her family is just beginning. And Neneo has offered to support her and when she questions him about helping, he tells her it’s something he’s got to do, as he had fallen for her.