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A review by b00kh0arder
Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura
3.0
Round up to 3.5 stars.
Seven children are summoned to a beautiful castle, through their bedroom mirrors, by a mysterious little girl in a wolf mask, known only as the Wolf Queen. The castle will be open for these 'Red Riding Hoods' every day from 9 until 5, until March 30th, when the castle will close for good. It also contains clues to a key that will unlock a special "wishing room." The one who unlocks this room will have their wish granted.
There's only one rule: They MUST leave by 5pm, or they'll be eaten by a wolf.
The children slowly get to know one another, they discover they have one thing in common: for one reason or another, they've all stopped going to school.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror is, at its heart, a fairytale - with all the hallmarks of both Japanese literature and Japanese fantasy (despite the Western fairytale motifs), the latter of which you will be particularly familiar with if you watch a lot of anime or read a lot of manga; It's been translated by Philip Gabriel, translator of a lot of Murakami's work, so the translation itself is fairly solid - about making connections with others,looking as it does at relatable subjects such as bullying loneliness, isolation and school burnout, and at the particular flaws of the Japanese school system, where pupils' psychological health & well-being is often the price of academic excellence, and dropping out is not an uncommon phenomena.
Easy to see why it was a bestseller.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for review
Seven children are summoned to a beautiful castle, through their bedroom mirrors, by a mysterious little girl in a wolf mask, known only as the Wolf Queen. The castle will be open for these 'Red Riding Hoods' every day from 9 until 5, until March 30th, when the castle will close for good. It also contains clues to a key that will unlock a special "wishing room." The one who unlocks this room will have their wish granted.
There's only one rule: They MUST leave by 5pm, or they'll be eaten by a wolf.
The children slowly get to know one another, they discover they have one thing in common: for one reason or another, they've all stopped going to school.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror is, at its heart, a fairytale - with all the hallmarks of both Japanese literature and Japanese fantasy (despite the Western fairytale motifs), the latter of which you will be particularly familiar with if you watch a lot of anime or read a lot of manga; It's been translated by Philip Gabriel, translator of a lot of Murakami's work, so the translation itself is fairly solid - about making connections with others,looking as it does at relatable subjects such as bullying loneliness, isolation and school burnout, and at the particular flaws of the Japanese school system, where pupils' psychological health & well-being is often the price of academic excellence, and dropping out is not an uncommon phenomena.
Easy to see why it was a bestseller.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for review