“It’s so great, I thought, having tea in the afternoon with someone you really feel at home with. I knew how wildly he tosses in his sleep, how much milk and sugar he takes in his coffee. I knew his face in front of the mirror, insanely serious, as he tries to tame his mop of unruly hair with the hair dryer.”
There are two stories in this book, Kitchen and Moonlight Shadow, I’ll comment on both of them.
Kitchen:
Firstly, The writing is beautiful, this author has such an amazing way with words. The way she treats the kitchen is so comforting to me. It isn’t because she is a woman that she frequents it, it’s because she truly, wholeheartedly loved the place. The relationship between Yuichi and Mikage is so soft. Just two young people who are trying to learn how to grieve and go through their lives. I love how instead of being a “they fixed each other” kind of trope, they both understand they have to take time alone to process what they’re going through. They understand that dealing with sadness and pain sometimes means being away from the people you love and that's okay. They’re there for each other to make each other laugh, and to share food together. This is a very healthy and pure love, when no one was there they found a family in each other. Seeing Yuichi and Mikage joke together after all they’ve been through gives me such a nice feeling. This story is a beautiful take on the found family trope. One huge problem the book has is the way it is spoken about its trans characters. I am unfamiliar with the way trans language works in Japan, but from what I have seen it is normal to refer to a trans person by their birth sex. It still feels uncomfortable to see Yuichi refer to his mom as a man when we get no indication she is okay with it or when she never refers to herself the same way. This has made me want to research about being Transgender in Japan more. The only reason I didn't consider it a big problem in this book is because it's clear Eriko is meant to be a great person in this story and in a way it feels like it raises awareness. This is only my uneducated opinion, I'll do more research and come back to this again.
Moonlight Shadow:
I don’t have much to say about this story. The writing was still beautiful and heartwarming, the characters still had depth and were interesting. The ending shook me, there’s nothing much to say about this other than it was a lovely story.
The book overall isn’t anything groundbreaking or revolutionary, but I really enjoyed it and that’s all that matters.