Chii
This book is beautiful aesthetically, but there wasn't much there in it for me. There's little to no world building going on, despite the fact that it's so focused on maps, and that makes it really confusing. No characters really get any development, and/or (worse) die and come back with no clear explanation. The story is very inconsistent in tempo, and I honestly fell asleep several times during the slower parts.
I think the concept and the idea was definitely there, but it was just not executed well.
Maybe for quite young or inexperienced readers.
I don't really know what to say about this book. I guess it just wasn't for me?
Narratively, I did not care for it; all the jumping back and forth between the present and the past was confusing for me. But that is me and my personal struggle to comprehend stories told in this way - most probably will have no issue.
As for the characters, the plot, the theming, I found it very flat, dull, and predictive. I'm usually not one to guess the ending of anything early on, but for this one, it just seemed glaringly obvious from the first few chapters.
I liked the author's way of phrasing and especially descriptions, but overall I was just quite bored all the way through.
Definitely the best out of the 3. I think this was the only one that had twist that I didn't see coming from far away. Also teared up at some of the last chapters. Nice, satisfying ending.
The first two books made me cry but this just didn't hit.
I thought we were working with the concept of “you can't change the present by going to the past” because anything you do has already happened, but before Reiji goes back, Saki (I think) tells him Nanako's answer to the last question was option 2 (and is emphasized as further motivation for him to go!) but when he's there she says option 1??? It didn't seem like Saki lied, so did Reiji change time? What happened there?
Also, the pee off a frogs face line is having me contact my Japanese friend for fact checking because what the actual fuck.
I really don't know anymore what my issue was with this book the first time I read it.
I'm glad I re-read it. It's a fascinating concept, and as I'm about to start the sequel, I'm wishing it was a bigger series so this world could be explored further.
Absolutely gripping story telling. You can't help but hate June yet need to know what ridiculous thing she's going to do next - and how she'll try to justify it.
