A review by h4jer
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

2.0

my mistake for reading a book i saw recommended on tiktok. i don’t know how else to describe it but my main gripe with this book is that it is not subtle. the moral is straight up spelt out word for word in the first 20 pages so the rest of the book was just repeating itself. it’s supposed to be about the journey! i don’t want the author to tell me what i’m supposed to be taking away from the story, i want to discover it myself. the writing was very simple which i usually don’t mind but considering that this book had literally nothing else going for it it makes it feel very juvenile. the characters are flat and one dimensional and sort of felt like they were written for children. i could not bring myself to care even the slightest bit about them. also it felt very patriarchal lol. everyone calling this heartwarming i implore you to please read better books