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kenrya's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Grief, Car accident, Child death, Death, and Suicidal thoughts
saomah5566's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Grief, Transphobia, Mental illness, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Car accident, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
chiara_dose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Car accident, Grief, Murder, and Stalking
xbernadette's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Grief
annabella's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.25
Hitoshi:
I'll never be able to be here again. As the minutes slide by, I move on. The flow of time is something I cannot stop. I haven't a choice. I go.
One caravan has stopped, another starts up. There are people I have yet to meet, others I'll never see again.
People who are gone before you know it, people who are just passing through. Even as we exchange hellos, they seem to grow transparent. I must keep living with the flowing river before my eyes.
I earnestly pray that a trace of my girl-child self will always be with you.
For waving good-bye, I thank you.
It’s a short read and I thought the final section was less engaging, maybe as less food was involved, but the mystery of the river drew it forward. I have a lot of love for Hitoshi and the other characters. I couldn’t really place them in the social world though like their school background and stuff, but I didn’t feel I needed to.
Edit: omg reading reviews I realised that in my stunted reading journey of this book it’s in fact two different stories with two sets of characters ngl I was confused why I didn’t recognise the names and stuff but put it down to my own tiredness 😭 well hey I think I preferred Kitchen. But liked both!
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Transphobia
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Violence
chellyfishing's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Moderate: Death, Transphobia, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Murder and Car accident
srishtij's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Self harm
clovetra's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
i have such varying thoughts on both of the novellas included inside this book, so i'm going to separate my thoughts;
kitchen was.. alright! i got quite bored and felt there was no underlying story or message. none of the characters appeared interesting to me except eriko. i understood there was supposed to be a message or theme to grasp, but i couldn't. sure grief was there, but it felt almost secondary, and there was just no overarching purpose to the story, and i found it such a slog. i enjoyed some parts, such as when mikage is at work or as she converses with eriko, but other than that, i did not enjoy this story. on its own this story is a strong 1/5 for me.
i loved moonlight shadow. i would've much preferred if this was the longer one out of the two novellas. it felt like everyone was character was well-written, and i thoroughly enjoyed the story and the voice employed. the theme of grief and holding on was very prominent here, and written wonderfully. the ending was sweet, and i enjoyed how grief was portrayed here. i also love the presence of urara, she was a great addition to this story, as well as hiiragi. solid 3/5
honestly, even though i quite enjoyed moonlight shadow, it's only 40 pages out of a 150 page book. kitchen took up way too much of this novel to rate this book highly.
overall i think my issue was how kitchen felt lacklustre, vague, and said nothing about the themes i could see it was trying to portray. moonlight shadow came and brought my overall opinion of the book up, but because it was less than half of the book, i still would say i didn't enjoy myself here, which is a shame because i was looking forward to this read. oh well! lets hope the next banana yoshimoto book i read is one i enjoy </3
Graphic: Murder, Grief, Hate crime, Death, and Transphobia
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Blood, Stalking, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail
yelloweyedbeta's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.0
“as i grow older, much older, i will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. again and again i will suffer; again and again i will get back on my feet. i will not be defeated. i won't let my spirit be destroyed.”
Graphic: Transphobia, Death, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Alcoholism
charlieeee's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Graphic: Deadnaming and Outing
Moderate: Murder, Grief, Death of parent, and Death