The Haunted Bookstore – Gateway to a Parallel Universe (Light Novel), Vol. 1

Unfortunately, this book just didn't do it for me. The concept is great. It sounds exactly like something I would love. Our main character, Kaori, is a human who grew up in the spirit world. Her home is a rental bookstore, and she's surrounded by loving friends and adoptive parents. At the beginning of the book, a human exorcist named Suimei starts living in her house. Each chapter is a short story involving different spirits. It's the perfect setup for a heartwarming paranormal slice of life, right?

Yeah, no.

It would've worked if only the book focuses more on the story, be it the overarching plot of Suimei's search for his Inugami partner or even the smaller subplots in each chapter. Instead, we get like pages and pages of all these characters glorifying Kaori and sharing her tales growing up. This causes the interactions to be incredibly superficial instead of heartwarming, and all the things that should've mattered more were taken care of swiftly through a LOT of telling instead of showing. Including the spirits, which should've been featured more prominently. It worked for about two chapters before it got old. There's also a looot of blushing scenes between Kaori and Suimei, which would've been fine if only they have some kind of chemistry. Sadly, so far they haven't shown much so the “romance” feels forced.

Overall, the story feels too flat to invoke any emotions for me. It might work if you like Kaori since she clearly drives the story, but I don't find her particularly interesting so I'm not sure if I'll continue with this series. Also, despite the title, don't expect much from the bookstore part either since the books barely got mentioned and the only role they play is getting delivered by Kaori.