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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There was one moment that warmed my heart and did not expect with Jasmine - Eric’s sister - that I enjoyed when I reached that point. Most of the book was a bit predictable, but it was still fun listening to how messy Eric can get. The ending sounded a bit ai-generated.
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book so was good i felt like crying towards the end because it was so sad.
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm not sure how to even rate this book. The entire time i thought Eric was having some early onset schizophrenia. The ending (but not the epilogue) was cute and heartfelt. But at the same time it felt a bit much. It would've helped too if there was a flashback chapter about jasmine, the same we got for Daniel.
The epilogue was meh. Yes, I figured he'd find the real Haru again (though.. Is he real?), but it also felt a bit too coincidental.
So, I don't know. Maybe I expected something different?
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.
Thao gave the people what they wanted. “When Haru Was Here” is a sad story, just like his previous novel. The issue is that it feels forced. I feel like (no hate to Thao) but he saw how the public responded to “You’ve Reached Sam” and decided he needed to make a book that discusses the same themes of grief and loss. And I think by doing this Thao didn't create something that he was truly passionate about creating. But I digress.
Onto the flaws of the book. The characters are dull, and this is an issue that can easily be fixed by simply adding more chapters. This would cause many of the events in the story to hit the reader SO MUCH harder because they will have a far deeper emotional connection to the characters. After all, two chapters are not enough.
Another issue is that Haru is an incredibly unexplored character, which I found made trying to fall in love with him difficult, because both me and the MC basically only know that his family owns a stationary store. This is an issue, because it really took away from how much I cared when things would happen between Eric(MC) and Haru
And, my final complaint, because I apparently woke up today and chose to be hypercritical is the sentence structure. Never before when reading a book have I ever been triggered by sentence structure, but there is an over abundance of simple sentences. And it made it incredibly choppy to read.
All in all, this book is getting a 2-star rating, due to it feeling like this should be the first draft.
Again, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher.
Thao gave the people what they wanted. “When Haru Was Here” is a sad story, just like his previous novel. The issue is that it feels forced. I feel like (no hate to Thao) but he saw how the public responded to “You’ve Reached Sam” and decided he needed to make a book that discusses the same themes of grief and loss. And I think by doing this Thao didn't create something that he was truly passionate about creating. But I digress.
Onto the flaws of the book. The characters are dull, and this is an issue that can easily be fixed by simply adding more chapters. This would cause many of the events in the story to hit the reader SO MUCH harder because they will have a far deeper emotional connection to the characters. After all, two chapters are not enough.
Another issue is that Haru is an incredibly unexplored character, which I found made trying to fall in love with him difficult, because both me and the MC basically only know that his family owns a stationary store. This is an issue, because it really took away from how much I cared when things would happen between Eric(MC) and Haru
And, my final complaint, because I apparently woke up today and chose to be hypercritical is the sentence structure. Never before when reading a book have I ever been triggered by sentence structure, but there is an over abundance of simple sentences. And it made it incredibly choppy to read.
All in all, this book is getting a 2-star rating, due to it feeling like this should be the first draft.
Again, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-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
I had high expectations for this book after You've Reached Sam, and I gotta say - it did not disappoint. As someone who daydreams and creates imaginary scenarios to deal with my problems, I thought the concept of the story was very fascinating. At times it was a bit confusing what was real and what was just in Eric's head, but to be honest, I think that's just the nature of the story. The one thing I will say though, is the whole thing with Jasmine at the end confused me very much. I think she's dead, but I was having a hard time following