The story progresses pretty quickly even though almost half of it is flashbacks. Due to a great amount of flashbacks not really in linear order, toward the end it was a bit hard to figure out what really happened. However, the narration is beautiful and flows really well nonetheless.
The story spans four years I think, from the female lead's high school years to college years. In four volume, I didn't experience any forced jump in the storyline, so I thought that was quite skillfully done. however, I wasn't convinced about Kei's (the male lead) struggle. His sense of guilt that leads him back to the darkness repeatedly wasn't clearly explained in the flashbacks, but then that vagueness did help to evade unnecessary burden of his past on the girl.
The only thing I have against the story is that in the end, I'm not sure if everything worked out. I don't think they told each other enough things about their past to move on together.
Overall, I recommend Hana no Name to all shoujo fans, no matter if you like depressing stories or not. The setting of the story may seem depressing, but it's really not. The sadness is immense but subtle at the same time.
