4 out of 5

The same basic rules of the three previous volumes still apply: Emma, Norman, and Ray concoct plans to escape the faux-orphanage and mom’s clutches, told via Posuka Demizu bright, expressive linework and Kaiu Shirai’s hilariously double- and triple-take plot twists and turns.  I’ve used the word ridiculous before, and I’ll use it again, with the same caveat of The Promised Neverland moving at such a breakneck pace that the constant “you thought this happened but actually it was THIS” runaround becomes an integral part of the tone and key to the series’ fun.  Where volume 4 goes a bit beyond the previous books is in allowing our kids to start consider their own selfish reasons for wanting to escape – that they themselves want to survive, and not just altruistically rescue the rest – as things get down to the wire on the timing for the plans.  And, praise to Shirai, the thrills are ratcheted up even further thanks to not balking on that timeline: he’s set a certain pace for how time passes, he’s made it clear that the kids have got to go sooner rather than later, and I Want To Live brings that to the foreground.

Nail-biting.