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mikayladlewis's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Child death, Death of parent, and Grief
yogomagpie's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
A breathtaking story that I finished in one day. The plot was predictable, but Yui and Takeshi and Hana’s journey through grief and finding peace and acceptance was paced so sensitively and beautifully.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Medical content
qqjj's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Vomit, Child death, and Death of parent
words_and_dreams's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
A quiet reflective character study of loss and grief. Set after the Tsunami in Japan in 2011 the story follows Yui who lost her mother and daughter and Takeshi a bereaved husband whoes own daughter has stopped talking from grief and shock.
They meet on a hill in Japan where stands an empty disused telephone box. Here people speak into the receiver and speak to people they have lost.
Beautiful and heartbreaking. Studies how people cope after such a loss and how we can move on if at all. Hopeful and uplifting.
They meet on a hill in Japan where stands an empty disused telephone box. Here people speak into the receiver and speak to people they have lost.
Beautiful and heartbreaking. Studies how people cope after such a loss and how we can move on if at all. Hopeful and uplifting.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Death, Grief, and Death of parent
rinku's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- 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? Yes
3.5
The Phonebooth at the End of the World is a slow and sad character study and was a classic 3.5 stars read for me.
The book follows Yui who lost her mother and daughter at the Tohoku earthquake of 2011. Trying to deal with her grief, she visits a phonebooth where people can imagine talking to their lost loved ones. There, Yui gets to know many different people; Takeshi, who lost his wife, is one of them and his daughter Hana. The book does not only tell Yui’s story but sometimes switches POVs and tells the story of other characters who visit the phonebooth as well.
What I liked about this book were the different characters and seeing how they slowly grew together because they all visit the phone booth. They all mourn differently and try to overcome their grief in different ways, but they are still connected because they lost someone. Another thing I appreciated was the depiction of trauma and PTSD in the main character. The novel also showed how small encounters with other people can change one’s life.
Furthermore, I especially liked the Japanese setting and the depiction of their culture, and the writing style even though some sentences sounded like slogans from calendars. The parts put between the chapters that depicted pieces of information, like numbers, playlists, or favourite bands, were great as well.
My greatest critique of the book is probably the romance. I loved to see how Yui, Takeshi and Hana slowly became a family but the romance between Yui and Takeshi was not so well executed and progressed way too fast. When it came to their marriage, it became clear that Yui wasn’t ready for this step, but they did it nevertheless .
In summary, The Phonebooth at the End of the World depicted in an authentic way how it is to grieve for people you’ve lost and how you can slowly find back into life. The story lacked something here at there, especially at the romance front, but was still nice to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
annaem's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Grief
harriebo's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Child death, Death, and Death of parent
lisasplans's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
4.0
“Everybody’s grief looked the same at first but, ultimately, was unique.”
What a beautiful story about grief but also about finding hope and joy. This was introspective, lyrical, and beautifully written. If you are in the right headspace for this book, I highly recommend it.
I read this book as part of @_amysbookclub for January 2022. Thank you so much for bringing this book to my attention as I had not heard of it before.
What a beautiful story about grief but also about finding hope and joy. This was introspective, lyrical, and beautifully written. If you are in the right headspace for this book, I highly recommend it.
I read this book as part of @_amysbookclub for January 2022. Thank you so much for bringing this book to my attention as I had not heard of it before.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Grief
mel_s_bookshelf's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Promised to be breathtakingly beautiful and utterly heartbreaking (which at times it was), it unfortunately dragged on a bit too long for me.
Having lost both her mother and her daughter in the 2011 tsunami, Yui is overwhelmed with grief when she hears about Bell Gardia and “the wind phone” that lies within. People travel from miles away to visit this private garden, and if they can find the courage, step inside the phone box, pick up the receiver and speak to those they have lost. When Yui visits, she is unable to find this strength, but instead meets Takeshi, a widower whose young daughter has been unable to speak since their unbearable loss, and from here a friendship built on shared grief is formed.
Bell Gardia is a real place which I was already familiar with having only recently read another book that used the wind phone as inspiration. I completely ADORED the other book based off this concept, and so was hoping I would thoroughly enjoy this as well, but unfortunately it just didn’t work for me.
Laura’s writing is beautiful and there were some passages throughout that really spoke to me. She has really captured some of the raw emotions and experiences of grief and had this been a much shorter story (possibly a novella), I think it would have been wonderful. However, instead it felt like it dragged on and on and on, with no solid plot and rather simple character development.
I really wanted to love this, and the beautiful prose and captivating narrator kept me going until the end, but ultimately it was just okay, likeable, but not something I would read or listen to again. It is currently free with an Audible subscription so if you are going through grief, I think you will find parts of it relatable, heartbreaking and encouraging (I did) and it might be worth a listen.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pregnancy
tiemzahra's review against another edition
emotional
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
4.0
“Everybody’s grief looked the same at first but ultimately, was unique.”
Stories based on the garden of Gardia, where a phone box exists overlooking the seas and people travelled to deliver their messages to their loved ones who had passed. Yui lost her mother and daughter in 2011 tsunami, and when she heard of the phone box, decided to leave a message but when she arrived, she found it hard to say anything.
Stories based on the garden of Gardia, where a phone box exists overlooking the seas and people travelled to deliver their messages to their loved ones who had passed. Yui lost her mother and daughter in 2011 tsunami, and when she heard of the phone box, decided to leave a message but when she arrived, she found it hard to say anything.
This book brings the message of hope and moving forward after the loss. Yui was acquainted with people with different experiences of grief. This has become very personal to me, and I agree with the many points made in this book that 1) grief is unique, 2) it’s not reserved only for our loved ones who had passed away, it is also for them who are still alive but had become distant, 3) death is felt more by the living and 4) people process grief in different ways, and in this book gave one example, speaking with our loved ones through the receiver, but it could be different and varied. Hence why grief is a shared experience but unique to every individual.
Interestingly, this book was originally written in Italian translated to English but of Japanese culture. This book also retains the Japanese words (yukata, geta, etc.), the order of Japanese name (family name first, given name second), and spelling (Tōkyō instead of Tokyo). My only complaint is the narrative style, where it has so much potential to make me bawl, but the narration is so dry and bland, it deprived me from expected emotion. This is probably the style of the author, or it got lost in translation. Also a very minor grammatical mistake but a glaring one, I wish this book is better edited.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief