3.83 AVERAGE

funny hopeful inspiring 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

I was surprised by the story moving so fast and arriving at what I thought was the conclusion (based on the blurb) half-way through. But that left space for a delightful turn of events and delving deeper into the main character's story.
I really did enjoy this book - it was fast to read and entertaining and fascinating the entire time.

I understand the footnotes with pronunciations and explanations for specific concepts. To me peronally it felt a bit disruptive for the story, but that's just a me thing.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

This is one I'll recommend to a lot of people, and look for other books like it. I found this book so creative--uniquely fantastical, whimsical, dark, and really reminiscent of various eastern folklore symbolism. The character was an awesome example of a feminist heroine, deeply uncomfortable about structural sexism and not unwilling to take action (even if she is afraid). She feels real and relatable for a cursed "demon lady" (her name is MIUKO!!!). The other characters are cute and have interesting backgrounds. This story was an adventure that kept going. Not a book with romance, shockingly, though friendship is keenly important.

Don’t know if I wasn’t into this book or just entirely too long but I was ready for it be done like 4 hours earlier than it did.
adventurous mysterious tense fast-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
adventurous challenging 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: Complicated

It started a bit slow, but picked up speed. I enjoyed it.

DNF at page 271, but I'm marking it as read because I did read more than 50% of the book.
This should have been a great book for me, I'm a crazy Studio Ghibli fan, but alas it wasn't.
The author lost me the as soon as the MC went back in time. I hate stories with time traveling, they become extremely convulated. Also, she becomes a demon and doesn't want to kill anyone? For shame. It also seemed that the story became more childish in the second part and I can't be bothered anymore.
Lovely writing, though.
Two stars because the first part of the novel was really engaging.
jessiethelion's profile picture

jessiethelion's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 59%

I had trouble staying engaged with this one. The world is cool. The idea is cool. But the execution is lacking. 

Rounded up from 3.5 based on the ARC
unicorn's profile picture

unicorn's review

4.5
adventurous dark emotional hopeful fast-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