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mpbookreviews's review against another edition
emotional
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Car accident, Child death, and Death
space_pancake's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Abandonment, Car accident, Grief, Child death, and Panic attacks/disorders
silly_little_creature's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Abandonment
maameadwubi's review against another edition
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I was really looking forward to reading a book with ace/aro representation, but i found Rumi to be a bit unlikeable and hard to connect with. Her reactions and behaviors made it hard to want to continue reading the book. I feel there are better ways to have written a character stricken with grief. The romance/friendship between the two characters felt a bit contrived as well.
The book had a lot of potential, but I don’t think was written well or that the characters were well developed. Overall, it felt a bit shallow.
The book had a lot of potential, but I don’t think was written well or that the characters were well developed. Overall, it felt a bit shallow.
Content Warnings
Minor: Car accident, Child death, Death, and Grief
silversparkles50's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Child death
evelynyle_88's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Car accident, and Grief
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Child death
Minor: Cancer
innastholiel's review
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I don’t really like this book. There is honestly a fair number of reasons for that, but my main gripe with it is really only one thing: This book doesn’t have a focus point. The two major themes are grief and sexual/romantic identity, but they don’t fit together, so the book ends up just sort of puttering around for 350-odd pages, and at the end of it, you’re sort of left hanging, because neither theme is really given the room to be explored.
I’m going to take a wild guess and say that this is probably not an own-voices novel for asexuality or aromanticism, at least not in the more narrow definition of those identities (i.e. someone doesn’t experience sexual or romantic attraction at all). I have no problem with authors writing characters of different identities to them, but they really should do their research, and I kinda feel like Akemi Dawn Bowman didn’t.
I believe that part of the problem is the aforementioned lack of focus: This book is also about grief, and that really muddies the waters. Rumi is stuck in a deep dark hole of it, and that sort of environment doesn’t lend itself to exploring sexual and romantic identity. Rumi considering labels like “asexual” and “aromantic” is mentioned in the flashbacks, but the bulk of the book takes place in the present, after Rumi has suffered a terrible loss that eclipses all other things. Grief is an ugly and complicated beast, and it eats up nearly all of a person’s mental capacity and energy. Which, again, is why it’s a terrible idea to incorporate exploration of self-identification in a novel that also focuses heavily on grief. The end result is a book that feels like it’s not really interested in exploring what it means to be asexual and/or aromantic, and only included those identities for brownie points, or because the author or their agent or whoever thought that those identities are easy to come to terms with and therefore don’t need space to exist. Asexuality and aromanticism are defined by a lack of something, rather than its presence, but an absence can still take up space, and it deserves that space to exist and to be examined.
The other problem — and this isn’t excused by the book’s lack of a focus point — is that Rumi is a bit of a stereotype: She’s kinda cold, and kinda mean, and weirdly attached to her sister in a way that made me a little uncomfortable, personally. Of course there are ace and/or aro people who are cold and mean, just like there are cold and mean people of any other sexual/romantic identity, but ace and/or aro representation is really deficient, and if the only representation that exists consists of stereotypes, that creates a significant problem. Media has a responsibility to create understanding in the public eye; it should normalise different ways to be a person, and show that all those ways are valid. That is why it is crucial that the creators of media explore their preconceived notions before they put their stories out into the world, so that mean-spirited, stereotypical portrayals can be avoided, however intentional or unintentional they may be.
The death blow is that the novel also fails to explore grief in any sort of deep or meaningful way. Rumi is stuck for most of the book: She’s angry, and she lashes out, until she doesn’t. This is not a process we see her go through; she’s bad, and then she’s better, just like that. There isn’t even an examination of Rumi’s (arguably) distorted memories: Lea is perfect in every one of them. It would have been much more interesting to see Rumi remember that her sister wasn’t perfect, because her sister was a human being. I think realising that would’ve cemented Rumi’s path to healing, instead of making it seem like healing just happens. The message appears to be “time heals all wounds”, which I’ve never found to be true, and also isn’t very interesting from a story-telling perspective because it places no onus on the character’s part and therefore the character never has to achieve anything.
The truth is this: Healing takes effort; it takes exploration and self-reflection. I don’t see Rumi making any significant efforts, I don’t see her explore her feelings or self-reflect, yet she still somehow knows that her behaviour is wrong and not constructive, which honestly makes the fact that she behaves like she does at all much more sinister and childish. And the other characters don’t even confront her about it, they give her way too much slack, especially Kai. He did not know Rumi before she lost Lea and therefore has no way of contextualising her behaviour. So for all intents and purposes, he should not be interested in her in any way because from his perspective, she’s a gloomy girl he just met who’s nothing but mean to him. Honestly, to me this book kinda screams girl meets boy who solves all her problems with lurv, despite not featuring a romantic relationship.
I understand that in real life, many things happen at the same time. But the point of a story isn’t to throw 50 different things at a wall to see what sticks, it is to focus in on — honestly imo ideally only one thing, and to explore that. Anything else you add to the story should come from that and link back to it. Because this book tries to incorporate two major themes and doesn’t connect them, they end up fighting each other to be on top, and the end result is a book that has nothing to add to any conversation, except maybe a mumbled “I dunno” accompanied by a shrug.
I’m going to take a wild guess and say that this is probably not an own-voices novel for asexuality or aromanticism, at least not in the more narrow definition of those identities (i.e. someone doesn’t experience sexual or romantic attraction at all). I have no problem with authors writing characters of different identities to them, but they really should do their research, and I kinda feel like Akemi Dawn Bowman didn’t.
I believe that part of the problem is the aforementioned lack of focus: This book is also about grief, and that really muddies the waters. Rumi is stuck in a deep dark hole of it, and that sort of environment doesn’t lend itself to exploring sexual and romantic identity. Rumi considering labels like “asexual” and “aromantic” is mentioned in the flashbacks, but the bulk of the book takes place in the present, after Rumi has suffered a terrible loss that eclipses all other things. Grief is an ugly and complicated beast, and it eats up nearly all of a person’s mental capacity and energy. Which, again, is why it’s a terrible idea to incorporate exploration of self-identification in a novel that also focuses heavily on grief. The end result is a book that feels like it’s not really interested in exploring what it means to be asexual and/or aromantic, and only included those identities for brownie points, or because the author or their agent or whoever thought that those identities are easy to come to terms with and therefore don’t need space to exist. Asexuality and aromanticism are defined by a lack of something, rather than its presence, but an absence can still take up space, and it deserves that space to exist and to be examined.
The other problem — and this isn’t excused by the book’s lack of a focus point — is that Rumi is a bit of a stereotype: She’s kinda cold, and kinda mean, and weirdly attached to her sister in a way that made me a little uncomfortable, personally. Of course there are ace and/or aro people who are cold and mean, just like there are cold and mean people of any other sexual/romantic identity, but ace and/or aro representation is really deficient, and if the only representation that exists consists of stereotypes, that creates a significant problem. Media has a responsibility to create understanding in the public eye; it should normalise different ways to be a person, and show that all those ways are valid. That is why it is crucial that the creators of media explore their preconceived notions before they put their stories out into the world, so that mean-spirited, stereotypical portrayals can be avoided, however intentional or unintentional they may be.
The death blow is that the novel also fails to explore grief in any sort of deep or meaningful way. Rumi is stuck for most of the book: She’s angry, and she lashes out, until she doesn’t. This is not a process we see her go through; she’s bad, and then she’s better, just like that. There isn’t even an examination of Rumi’s (arguably) distorted memories: Lea is perfect in every one of them. It would have been much more interesting to see Rumi remember that her sister wasn’t perfect, because her sister was a human being. I think realising that would’ve cemented Rumi’s path to healing, instead of making it seem like healing just happens. The message appears to be “time heals all wounds”, which I’ve never found to be true, and also isn’t very interesting from a story-telling perspective because it places no onus on the character’s part and therefore the character never has to achieve anything.
The truth is this: Healing takes effort; it takes exploration and self-reflection. I don’t see Rumi making any significant efforts, I don’t see her explore her feelings or self-reflect, yet she still somehow knows that her behaviour is wrong and not constructive, which honestly makes the fact that she behaves like she does at all much more sinister and childish. And the other characters don’t even confront her about it, they give her way too much slack, especially Kai. He did not know Rumi before she lost Lea and therefore has no way of contextualising her behaviour. So for all intents and purposes, he should not be interested in her in any way because from his perspective, she’s a gloomy girl he just met who’s nothing but mean to him. Honestly, to me this book kinda screams girl meets boy who solves all her problems with lurv, despite not featuring a romantic relationship.
I understand that in real life, many things happen at the same time. But the point of a story isn’t to throw 50 different things at a wall to see what sticks, it is to focus in on — honestly imo ideally only one thing, and to explore that. Anything else you add to the story should come from that and link back to it. Because this book tries to incorporate two major themes and doesn’t connect them, they end up fighting each other to be on top, and the end result is a book that has nothing to add to any conversation, except maybe a mumbled “I dunno” accompanied by a shrug.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Mental illness, Abandonment, and Car accident
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
cookiecat73's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Abandonment, Car accident, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Child death, and Cursing
Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit
Minor: Animal death, Acephobia/Arophobia, Cancer, Medical trauma, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Medical content
_kael_'s review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I cry everytim. I kennaht I-- <///3 ;_; y.y T-T I'm still processing my own sad emotions like in the book auahfsgsag. I am left in pain. Emotional damage.
The book has: Funny, wholesome, angry & sad moments, real & relatable characters, different types of relationships including platonic and Hawaiian pidgin. Everyone else was so heartwarming. Makes your heart full yk.
The book is: inspiring, bittersweet, heartwarming, sad, emotional, inspiring, reflective, poetic
Genres: LGBTQIA+, contemporary, fiction, young adult
About: processing grief, aro ace rep (brief mentions of the terms), music
Theme: summer vibes
Thoughts: I love the characters' relationship with each other. I thought Rumi and Mr. Watanabe's relationship was cute.
When Rumi and Kai started trying to date, I assumed maybe she wasn't in the far end of the aro spectrum. But if she was still aro, I was wondering how it was gonna end. I like how it doesn't go the usual romantic trope route where there's a token romantic partner in a story that doesn't really need romance/the romance isn't written well.
What I've reflected from what I've read: Relationships are complicated. So is life. It is complex. Every issue is rooted in interpersonal relationship issues (The Courage to Be Disliked). Most of the time due to insecurities, I've realized. The book TCTBD helped me in realizing this.Reading about Rumi's insecurities reminded of the book.
We all also have different emotional thresholds. To some, something is super sad, while to others it is not that sad.
It is also okay to not know all the answers in life. If you can get answers to some of your questions, you still don't need to know them right now. Everything in life is a journey, and everything takes time.
The ending: Roller coaster of emotions. The entire book's emotions in one. It started inP. 338 & Ch. 47, where I got mixed feelings about Rumi. First anger/something similar, understanding, then sadness. And then I cried. I loved the last chapter (Ch. 51), but that was it??¿ That's the ending??¿ After I cried and had a bit of bittersweet feel-good feelings after, it has ended already??¿ The author just left me crying in the end in emotional pain!! T-T <///3 Emotional dAamagee! It's like I grieved for the book. The ending cut too quick. u_y </3
Reading Summer Bird Blue's lyrics makes me feel like that it's melody/tone has the same vibes of the song "Dessert Moon" from Disney's Aladdin live action movie. It flew in the end.
Additional Thoughts: Very real lead character. Ngl, I can relate with her personality somewhat. I also thought I wasn't an angry person, but I realized I get irritated/annoyed/angry at certain moments and sometimes I also wonder why...And the sounding mean without any intention to be too. Everyone just needs some understanding. We need to be ourselves and the misunderstood want to be understood too. Maybe we can all try to take a step back and assess what someone's intentions really are. I can really see that she's trying with the sandwich method 😅 More characters like Rumi please, and different types of characters too. Maybe we can gain understanding of different people more by being in their shoes.
The book gives me inspiration and ideas, like the sandwich method and how Rumi & Lea find inspiration for their songs.
Also, therapy is good. 👍🏼
Writing style: I found it a continuous read, but since it isn't really my go-to genre, it's not to the point that I want to know what happens next. It was an okay read, but I don't think I'll find myself rereading it.
Conclusions: All throughout the book, I was neutral about it and found it very reflective most of the time. I would give it a solid 3.75 until the ending T_T <///3 There were 1-2 or so moments where I felt a bit sad before that, without getting teary-eyed. Maybe becauseLea died early in the book, so the reader didn't really get to have an emotional connection with the character. But the ending made me cry.
There were so many quotes from the book that I liked and loved. Maybe I'll quote one or a few some other time. Or maybe I won't. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The book has: Funny, wholesome, angry & sad moments, real & relatable characters, different types of relationships including platonic and Hawaiian pidgin. Everyone else was so heartwarming. Makes your heart full yk.
The book is: inspiring, bittersweet, heartwarming, sad, emotional, inspiring, reflective, poetic
Genres: LGBTQIA+, contemporary, fiction, young adult
About: processing grief, aro ace rep (brief mentions of the terms), music
Theme: summer vibes
Thoughts: I love the characters' relationship with each other. I thought Rumi and Mr. Watanabe's relationship was cute.
What I've reflected from what I've read: Relationships are complicated. So is life. It is complex. Every issue is rooted in interpersonal relationship issues (The Courage to Be Disliked). Most of the time due to insecurities, I've realized. The book TCTBD helped me in realizing this.
We all also have different emotional thresholds. To some, something is super sad, while to others it is not that sad.
It is also okay to not know all the answers in life. If you can get answers to some of your questions, you still don't need to know them right now. Everything in life is a journey, and everything takes time.
The ending: Roller coaster of emotions. The entire book's emotions in one. It started in
Reading Summer Bird Blue's lyrics makes me feel like that it's melody/tone has the same vibes of the song "Dessert Moon" from Disney's Aladdin live action movie. It flew in the end.
Additional Thoughts: Very real lead character. Ngl, I can relate with her personality somewhat. I also thought I wasn't an angry person, but I realized I get irritated/annoyed/angry at certain moments and sometimes I also wonder why...And the sounding mean without any intention to be too. Everyone just needs some understanding. We need to be ourselves and the misunderstood want to be understood too. Maybe we can all try to take a step back and assess what someone's intentions really are. I can really see that she's trying with the sandwich method 😅 More characters like Rumi please, and different types of characters too. Maybe we can gain understanding of different people more by being in their shoes.
The book gives me inspiration and ideas, like the sandwich method and how Rumi & Lea find inspiration for their songs.
Also, therapy is good. 👍🏼
Writing style: I found it a continuous read, but since it isn't really my go-to genre, it's not to the point that I want to know what happens next. It was an okay read, but I don't think I'll find myself rereading it.
Conclusions: All throughout the book, I was neutral about it and found it very reflective most of the time. I would give it a solid 3.75 until the ending T_T <///3 There were 1-2 or so moments where I felt a bit sad before that, without getting teary-eyed. Maybe because
There were so many quotes from the book that I liked and loved. Maybe I'll quote one or a few some other time. Or maybe I won't. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Grief, Car accident, and Child death
Moderate: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness, and Mental illness
hello_lovely13's review against another edition
emotional
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? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Car accident, and Grief
Moderate: Child death and Mental illness
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders