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Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'
Tales from the Cafe: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
33 reviews
nini23's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This book and its predecessor could have been charming given its unique premise. However, I find the shorthand emotional writing shallow and annoying. The author doesn't take time to build a connection with the characters, instead lobbing us readers with lazy reductive emotional flashcard cues/prompts such as cancer, suicide, miscarriage, death. It's like the white truck of doom often joked about in transmigration Japanese stories, the accident isn't the point, just a means for the plot to move forward. I would like to hope that humans and their stories are more nuanced than that. Instead, the author doesn't trust us to reach our own conclusions and spells everything out painstakingly for us. The wedding ring on Asami's finger which she showed to Kurata at their meeting, for instance, we could have connected the dots as to its ownership with a sprinkling of clues instead of being bluntly told.
Why did I pick up the second book in the series if the first one wasn't satisfactory? I was curious about the ghost in white, whose backstory is revealed in Tales From The Cafe. Her (Kaname is her name) story turns out to be not that impactful, she wasn't a good judge of what 'before the coffee turns cold' meant. For that matter, although the rules for time travel are rigid and repeated over and over, the author makes sure through plot manipulation that people with regrets say their piece and are prevented from their own folly of not meeting their desired person or accidentally returning before their time. It's like in dramas or theater where the dying person miraculously has just enough breath and life to have a full soliloquy before expiring.
What annoys me the most are the simplistic views espoused. When a person is clinically depressed with suicidal ideation, there's chemical imbalances in the brain and no magic phrase or soothing aphorism is suddenly going to heal them. Grief, guilt and regrets take difficult long work to get through, there is no shortcut. A clump of cells is not a baby or a child, not even a fetus. And I'd like to know how Kimiko truly feels about being denied her dream job of being a police officer solely on account of her being female while her husband is promoted swiftly to detective and he doesn't even want the position! As for those sweeping grandiose generalized statements of parental love for their children, well there is a surfeit of child abandonment, neglect and abuse cases to put that to rest.
Why did I pick up the second book in the series if the first one wasn't satisfactory? I was curious about the ghost in white, whose backstory is revealed in Tales From The Cafe. Her (Kaname is her name) story turns out to be not that impactful, she wasn't a good judge of what 'before the coffee turns cold' meant. For that matter, although the rules for time travel are rigid and repeated over and over, the author makes sure through plot manipulation that people with regrets say their piece and are prevented from their own folly of not meeting their desired person or accidentally returning before their time. It's like in dramas or theater where the dying person miraculously has just enough breath and life to have a full soliloquy before expiring.
What annoys me the most are the simplistic views espoused. When a person is clinically depressed with suicidal ideation, there's chemical imbalances in the brain and no magic phrase or soothing aphorism is suddenly going to heal them. Grief, guilt and regrets take difficult long work to get through, there is no shortcut. A clump of cells is not a baby or a child, not even a fetus. And I'd like to know how Kimiko truly feels about being denied her dream job of being a police officer solely on account of her being female while her husband is promoted swiftly to detective and he doesn't even want the position! As for those sweeping grandiose generalized statements of parental love for their children, well there is a surfeit of child abandonment, neglect and abuse cases to put that to rest.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt
ohbookisme's review against another edition
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
4.5
It was a joy to revisit the café after a year away. This location holds such love, wonder, and magic which I personally find so wholesome and carries an essence of home with it.
“I have lived my life unable to tell the truth for risk of losing my own happiness.”
My thoughts:
I was rather skeptical about how this would follow the first book, but learning more about Kazu and how she reacts to certain situation was rewarding in so many ways. There was such an in-depth development of personal expression and feelings that could be quite triggering for some readers as much of this volume explores grief and depression in a graphic way. I definitely felt that I was an observer to these characters, not in an intrusive way, but they were welcoming and seemed aware of the reader in a very interesting way.
I still loved the short story format that this book continued from the first volume, it felt as though we were glimpsing into these characters lives. Albeit brief, but entirely sincere.
“‘If you can’t change anything, why would anyone want to go back?’ Yet he was now standing at the front door of the cafe thinking, ‘Even so, I want to go back.’”
“I have lived my life unable to tell the truth for risk of losing my own happiness.”
My thoughts:
I was rather skeptical about how this would follow the first book, but learning more about Kazu and how she reacts to certain situation was rewarding in so many ways. There was such an in-depth development of personal expression and feelings that could be quite triggering for some readers as much of this volume explores grief and depression in a graphic way. I definitely felt that I was an observer to these characters, not in an intrusive way, but they were welcoming and seemed aware of the reader in a very interesting way.
I still loved the short story format that this book continued from the first volume, it felt as though we were glimpsing into these characters lives. Albeit brief, but entirely sincere.
“‘If you can’t change anything, why would anyone want to go back?’ Yet he was now standing at the front door of the cafe thinking, ‘Even so, I want to go back.’”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
ismendes's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
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