Reviews with content warning for Car accident - Before the Coffee Gets Cold

This was just so bland, like it was not very long but it could easily have been a short story, it was so repetitive (honestly if you cut out half the times they repeat the rules it would still be too many time) and none of the rules every felt consequential

i wanted a moment where someone tried to move from the chair and got pulled back or tried to do something they hoped would change the future but not they didnt at all, and the final like message was ‘you might not be able to change the events but u can change how u feel about them’ ok girl i couldna just told u that 10 pages in…

also theyre like wow the rules are so annoying that no one even really bothers to go back 😔 what are u kidding me? Are u telling me that no one can get over some (pretty basic rules) also also there are just some world building things that we’re just gonna ignore? If you go back to a previous time u were there what happens to the new you? What can you remember about that moment? Cause the old u just seems to vanish? And if u can stay all night to wait for the seat does the woman have to also forgo sleep just incase she has to buy you coffee? Why dont you give everyone the buzzer?

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vaekay's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a wonderful and enjoyable read... until the last section. Usually emotional and inspiring, I felt blindsided by the terrible understanding of female anatomy or pregnancy as well as what I perceived as multiple grammatical errors by the translator. I actually found the way they regarded Kei's pregnancy and coordinated death (to save her and Nagere's baby) to be absolutely ridiculous and the sort of fictitious bullshit that only a male author would dream of writing.

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cozycactus's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This is four short, interconnected stories. Although the translation leaves the writing feeling wanting, the overarching message is embedded in the story quite well.

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deuxlunes_'s review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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seubecca's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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veskumelooni's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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kjm19's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Before the coffee gets cold - is a cool idea for a book. Customers at the cafe can go either to the past or the future but must come back before the coffee gets cold (otherwise they end up like the woman in the white dress who remains a mystery from beginning to end). The cafe is timeless, always cool, and mysterious in many ways. It’s described too many times but I do like its description. An unorthodox, small place that seems to find the people who need it.

Characters were, unfortunately, pretty one dimensional and stereotypical. Also no cat???

The plot would start moving somewhere and then the author would jump into a deep dive about something vaguely relating to the current focus character. These deep dives would take you out of the natural flow of the story and was frustrating at times. E.g. when Kei, the pregnant owner of the restaurant, is about to go to the future to meet her unborn child there is a deep dive into Kazu, the current waitress, and her university art course.

I love the part where the woman in the white dress closes her book after the first section when a woman goes to the past to see her ex partner and it’s named ‘the lovers’. But this sort of thing is never replicated for future time travellers.

I wonder how much of an impact the translation has made on my impression of the book. I feel that it’s been clumsily written and oversimplified in its vocabulary and descriptions. Is it totally true to the original? Is it translated more to show a word for word meaning instead of implied meanings? I am intrigued.

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