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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
Post-high school and not quite ready for college and career, three new adult girls (one from Singapore, one from Korea, and one Japanese-born but raised in America) move in together in Japan. They study the language, but over the course of a year they learn more about themselves and their own identities. The author celebrates the accents and nuances of different Asian cultures, while portraying the difficulties of learning a language, assimilating to life in a new country, and growing up. It's a realistic and hopeful, deeply heartfelt yet humorous look at the course of self-discovery.
I love a good slice of life, coming of age story. The illustrations are gorgeous.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
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
I have never read a book that has captured language as such an experience. It was beautiful to feel the vulnerability of struggling to communicate alongside the characters. It made the experience of how they managed to create loving relationships even more amazing and real.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It was ok but honestly confusing:
1) The back and forth between all the characters was too much for me. It was nice to see everyone’s life’s and link to their countries and family history but it felt too messy.
2) the speech bubbles with the constant double languages were exhausting. As a bilingual person I get the reason behind it but as a reader I hated it. It’s tiring for the eyes and doesn’t make for a good reading experience. Same with the accents / phonetic writing of the non English speaking characters. I get the author’s reasons for doing it and I do love hearing people’s accents in an audio media (and I do think we should celebrate it in general) but in a book it’s too much. It doesn’t help the story flow and here the story was very slow unfortunately. It just makes it drag even more.
And honestly I didn’t like the comment about white people in Japan. It was very strange, especially from this character. I get that it’s supposed to help with the MC’s feeling torn between feeling Japanese/American but I didn’t like it
I did like the art style and a lot of references about Japanese culture or this feeling of being torn between 2 cultures/ languages…I did appreciate seeing a MC from Singapore since it’s rare and I love SGP dearly
1) The back and forth between all the characters was too much for me. It was nice to see everyone’s life’s and link to their countries and family history but it felt too messy.
2) the speech bubbles with the constant double languages were exhausting. As a bilingual person I get the reason behind it but as a reader I hated it. It’s tiring for the eyes and doesn’t make for a good reading experience. Same with the accents / phonetic writing of the non English speaking characters. I get the author’s reasons for doing it and I do love hearing people’s accents in an audio media (and I do think we should celebrate it in general) but in a book it’s too much. It doesn’t help the story flow and here the story was very slow unfortunately. It just makes it drag even more.
And honestly I didn’t like the comment about white people in Japan. It was very strange, especially from this character. I get that it’s supposed to help with the MC’s feeling torn between feeling Japanese/American but I didn’t like it
I did like the art style and a lot of references about Japanese culture or this feeling of being torn between 2 cultures/ languages…I did appreciate seeing a MC from Singapore since it’s rare and I love SGP dearly
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
sad
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
Super cute and realistic portrayal of young people discovering the world, their roots, and their own emotions. I've read this 2x now (since it's also a graphic novel, so an easy fast read). I resonated with the characters' charm and ability to enjoy their youth. Definitly a feel-good! But also makes you sympathize with real true characters that feel out-of-place.
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Harmony Becker’s Himawari House is so good! I really love the note at the end that the creator wrote about the use of accents and how this is typically used as a point to be ashamed of if you have an accent with the language, but instead it should be a point of pride because it’s proof you know how to speak more than one language which is really an awesome thing.
All the commentary on the use of different languages and the barriers but also the connections that this brings was really interesting. And the friendships were so sweet! I also loved the depth of each character in just this single bound graphic novel. There were many parts that made me laugh out loud and many parts that were very bittersweet. It’s one of those slice of life stories where this is just how things are for the moment, and they all know it will change eventually, but for the moment they just live in the now. So the ending was a little sad, but realistic too.
I really liked the art style and absolutely love the cover!
All the commentary on the use of different languages and the barriers but also the connections that this brings was really interesting. And the friendships were so sweet! I also loved the depth of each character in just this single bound graphic novel. There were many parts that made me laugh out loud and many parts that were very bittersweet. It’s one of those slice of life stories where this is just how things are for the moment, and they all know it will change eventually, but for the moment they just live in the now. So the ending was a little sad, but realistic too.
I really liked the art style and absolutely love the cover!