New favorite!! ( )

A short translated novel about books and bookshops, and what reading is for. Its also about loss and grief and friendship. Its kind of enjoyable, but didn't leave a lasting impression on me. It feels very Japanese, they seem keen on books about cats and books. ( )

A cozy book about the importance of books and how they can help us overcome grief. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on audiobook from the library.

Thoughts: This was okay. I enjoyed the overall premise but found parts to be a bit preachy and on the nose. Then towards the end of a lot of the preachyness is kind of retracted. This wasn't as magical or entertaining as I expected. However, I did enjoy watching the main character figure things out for himself.

This books follows a bookish shut-in high school student name Rintaro Natsuki. His grandfather has died, and he is being forced to move in with a distant aunt, this will involve him leaving the bookstore his grandfather owned. Suddenly a talking cat shows up and asks for Rintaro's help with stopping books from being damaged. Rintaro ends up journeying through a strange magical labyrinth of books and confronting evil book owners. During these quests, he learns more about himself and those who care about him.

This was a simple story. I really loved the talking cat but wished the cat was in the story more. It was nice to see Rintaro grow as a characters and start to take some direction with his life.

I realize that the story structure follows some classic Greek mythology structures (four labyrinths, etc). I found it to be a bit preachy and pretentious. There is a lot of talk about the evils of people who only read books once or read them too quickly or read books that don't contain any substance. I rarely read a book twice unless it's one I really love or really got something out of. I also enjoy reading lighter books at times. I thought this discussion was a bit heavy-handed. However, at the end, the story this is is abruptly turned around and we are told that people should just read whatever they want to read and connect with each other. This made me feel like a lot of the beginning of the story was being taken back.

The writing style and story structure is incredibly simple and predictable. I also struggled to figure out what audience this book would be good for. It is a book about loving books but spends a lot of time insulting people who love books and then says everyone should love books. I thought whatever message was being delivered here ended up very convoluted.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay. I listened to it while driving during a road trip and didn't really have anything else to do. I liked the talking cat and liked the main character growth. The magic and fantasy was very light. The plot and writing style were very basic. The message ended up fairly confusing and convoluted. This isn't an awful book, but it isn't a great one either. I personally would skip it, however, it isn't a huge time commitment to read it if you enjoy books about books. ( )

also ebook okc
just a random rec... I suspect I'll be disappointed because authors of books-about-books always read differently than I do... but it's short, so try it