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Tokyo Ghoul is a story about our main protagonist's internal struggle. He involuntarily turned into a ghoul, a man-eating demon with human appearance, and was left all alone, belonging to both worlds, but wanted in none. How does he manage?

The manga is a quintessence of mixed feelings; the things it's done great were some of the best I've seen, while the not so good stuff was on the other end of extreme.

The great things include:

Kaneki Ken: this should be a no-brainer, Kaneki is universally deemed as one of best developed character out there. The Ken we know and love at the beginning of the manga ... is nothing like the Ken at the end. But it's not just that he's gained new strength, he's also gained new weaknesses. His development wasn't only for the better, but for the worse as well. He's got stronger more confident on one hand, but with these he's got more overprotective and irrational. His development was big and sudden, but at all unnatural or too hasty.

CCG/the antagonist: the CCG and Koutarou Amon were introduced in the second arc and I immediately fell in love with them. The dynamic between the good and the bad guys was unparalleled, to the point where one cannot easily differentiate the two. The ghouls are these evil creatures that hunt and eat humans, but there's also some that refuse their nature and lead relatively normal lives and only eat suicide victims' bodies.
On the other end of the spectrum is the CCG, which throws all ghouls into one bag and hunts them indiscriminately. This was best portrayed, when they killed Hinami's mom, a ghoul who's never harmed anyone.
This begs the question, who's really the bad guys. And the answer is both... And neither. They're two sides of the same coin. This was best portrayed when they, unbeknownst to each other, fought alongside one another against a mutual enemy. They are enemies at face value, but in reality, they are the same.

Detective: This was something I definitely didn't see coming, but it was a pleasant surprise. The mystery of Kaneki's ghoulification was intriguing and often left me in need of more.

Which brings me to the ugly stuff.

Kagune: Words cannot describe how much I hate kagune, Tokyo Ghoul's 'power system'. Special cells that reside in all of us, but in greater numbers within ghouls? A special organ, in which these cells gather and can burst out through the skin and form various wing-like, tentacle-like or drill-like limbs at will? That these limbs, solely out of these special cells, are harder than steel and ordinary weapons won't damage them? I usually like a unique power system, even if the story is weak. But kagune was just... No!

Instant healing: Ah, the notorious shounen trope, that takes away any sense of danger of fights and gravity of its aftermath. And while Tokyo Ghoul uses it sparingly and with care, its presence and importance are undeniable. I can tolerate instant healing, when it's executed well. Tokyo Ghoul unfortunately didn't.

Battles: This mostly ties to the two aforementioned points, or rather they manifest themselves in this point. Kagune makes battles quite confusing more often than not (although fights in mangas are generally harder to follow), and the instant healing takes away half of the enjoyment instantly.

Overall, Tokyo Ghoul is an amazing journey and is definitely deserving of its popularity. I personally enjoyed the times between battles more, not only because of the aforementioned point, but because that's when most of the character and story development occurred, but I can definitely see why people would enjoy the battles as well. The highest of highs definitely overshadow the lowest of lows, the only exception being kagune. I definitely do recommend this manga to anyone who enjoys good characters, a good mystery, and reading between the lines.