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A review by lillist
Meet You By Hachiko by Loren Greene
5.0
I have received an digital review copy via BookSirens and voluntarily provide my honest opinion. Thank you!
5 stars - So very lovely
Grace has mastered the art of being invisible, Kana is spending every waking minute of her life preparing for the entrance exams for the University she would like to enter. Grace is just discovering her personal style and has become kind of obsessed with Tokyo street style - so she contacts Kana over an internet website for a fashion magazine. It's a lucky coincidence as Kana is hoping to find a way to brush up her English and so they connect instantly.
They share their everyday worries and experiences and grow close. But then Kana disappears quite suddenly and Grace makes the - for her incredibly bold - decision to fly to Tokyo to try and find her friend, although she is not exactly the daring type and knows next to no Japanese. Of course, all will be well in the end, but until then both Grace and Kana will have to face many challenging situations that will eventually help them grow into the persons they want to be.
I feel like this book was written for the younger me when I became obsessed with Japan, the language, the culture, the street style, the music, everything. I can also relate so much to both Kana and Grace who have a hard time speaking up for themselves, always trying to please everybody, not taking good care of themselves. And I just love how they can support each other through their friendship.
The pacing and progression of the plot is very much character-driven (just like in the sequel "Edokko"), which I very much prefer. It is also always great to have a cast of different personalities who all feel well realized and a story that is not comprised of manufactured drama but is just a big slice of life.
I have already read Edokko (the sort of sequel) and I had the same distinct feeling with it as I had with this one: I found the storytelling to be very "Japanese" for lack of a better word. There is a much stronger reliance on realistic situations, nuanced characters and character growth.
This was one of the loveliest, most uplifting reads for me this year and I very much look forward to the next installment in the Sakura + Maple series!
5 stars - So very lovely
Grace has mastered the art of being invisible, Kana is spending every waking minute of her life preparing for the entrance exams for the University she would like to enter. Grace is just discovering her personal style and has become kind of obsessed with Tokyo street style - so she contacts Kana over an internet website for a fashion magazine. It's a lucky coincidence as Kana is hoping to find a way to brush up her English and so they connect instantly.
They share their everyday worries and experiences and grow close. But then Kana disappears quite suddenly and Grace makes the - for her incredibly bold - decision to fly to Tokyo to try and find her friend, although she is not exactly the daring type and knows next to no Japanese. Of course, all will be well in the end, but until then both Grace and Kana will have to face many challenging situations that will eventually help them grow into the persons they want to be.
I feel like this book was written for the younger me when I became obsessed with Japan, the language, the culture, the street style, the music, everything. I can also relate so much to both Kana and Grace who have a hard time speaking up for themselves, always trying to please everybody, not taking good care of themselves. And I just love how they can support each other through their friendship.
The pacing and progression of the plot is very much character-driven (just like in the sequel "Edokko"), which I very much prefer. It is also always great to have a cast of different personalities who all feel well realized and a story that is not comprised of manufactured drama but is just a big slice of life.
I have already read Edokko (the sort of sequel) and I had the same distinct feeling with it as I had with this one: I found the storytelling to be very "Japanese" for lack of a better word. There is a much stronger reliance on realistic situations, nuanced characters and character growth.
This was one of the loveliest, most uplifting reads for me this year and I very much look forward to the next installment in the Sakura + Maple series!