I really liked this Japanese portal fantasy, so much so that I've been churning through a bunch of other Japanese YA fantasy ever since witho3.5 stars
I really liked this Japanese portal fantasy, so much so that I've been churning through a bunch of other Japanese YA fantasy ever since without the same kind of luck.
Here, the main character is a 13-year-old girl in the Tokyo area who has stopped going to school since a traumatizing bullying incident. There's a publisher's note at the end of the book that says a UNICEF study of 38 developed and emerging countries found that while Japan ranked first in school children's physical health, they rank second to last in mental health. One of the author's choices I loved here was her decision to have the MC's bullying have nothing to do with the MC. It's almost a fluke that she was the one singled out for the incident, and her sense of confusion and complete lack of understanding at what the hell is going on is just as palpable as her fear and hurt and anxiety afterward. The author projects her mental state very effectively, which helps keep the reader rooted in her mindset as she is transported to this fantastical, fairytale castle through her mirror where she meets six other children who have also dropped out of junior high as they're all given the chance to find a magic key and make one wish come true.
It works as a coming of age story, it works as a fantasy, it works as social commentary and all the loose ends tie together beautifully by the end.
It's YA, but the writing doesn't have an overly YA feel to it, and I think most fantasy lovers would be able to enjoy it. There was one section where I felt the pacing start to lag, but there's almost immediately a huge action beat right after that and it never lets up from there.
It's tender and impressive and worth this foray into Japanese literature that I'm undertaking for a book group even if I find nothing else I like the rest of the month....more
It took me quite a while to get into this, but once I did I really enjoyed it.
The MCs met several months before the book starts,2023 Christmas Bingo 2
It took me quite a while to get into this, but once I did I really enjoyed it.
The MCs met several months before the book starts, and I think it really needed a prologue scene from those earlier interactions. That would have pulled me into the story much quicker -- plus it just would have been nice to see :)
I almost want to re-read the first book in the series now, but it doesn't need to be fresh in your mind to enjoy this one. (Although another thing a prologue scene would have accomplished would be avoiding the concern that I might have just been forgetting something that happened in an earlier book! I wasn't. This just jumps straight into a story without much setup. I read the series epilogue right after this, though, and it really made me want to revisit Jerry and Alec.)
This is probably my favorite of the K.J. Charles short stories that I've read, and I'm pretty sure I've read them all now....more
DNF @ 34% mostly due to the realism of a time period when the only thing that raised eyebrows about a 12-year-old being pregnant was that she wasn’t mDNF @ 34% mostly due to the realism of a time period when the only thing that raised eyebrows about a 12-year-old being pregnant was that she wasn’t married. Which automatically made her a whore. Oh, and sodomy deserving prolonged time in a literal medieval torture chamber before being burned alive.
So the MC is very aware that exploring his attraction to the stable boy is a life or death decision and his 13-year-old best friend is about to be married off to an evil bastard and has been locked up to keep her from escaping the marriage.
The history itself is interesting since it’s an area I don’t know much about, but I believe I’ll choose ignorance in this case! Thanks for making 2022 look good ...more
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