Your final comment does make me wonder about two things: first, how the book would be different if set in America and written by an American author, and second,

Your final comment does make me wonder about two things: first, how the book would be different if set in America and written by an American author, and second, how much of this we would have seen if the book was targeted at adults instead of (pre)teens. Either way I'm looking forward to the gritty JoeAltmaier reboot :)