A review by kxiong5
Lion Cross Point by Masatsugu Ono

5.0

finished this in one sitting and ohhhh wow the way the ending hits was something else. This author does an amazing job of capturing the indecipherability of the world from the POV of a child (but also plays with a third person narration that’s both in and out of the child’s mind? Which is...hella cool?? what the heck???). The uncertainty of memory and of action (maybe Takeru did, maybe he didn’t) and the way that threads rose and fell in Takeru’s mind like waves and ripples felt so fluid and strange. And also: goddamn Takeru, mommy issues T-T and just ugh so much shit this little kid had to carry but also so much he’s lost and so much he’s seen to the point that the world /would/ seen this indecipherable to him, and he so clearly /wants/ and isn’t allowing himself to want, and it’s just. it does feel like a buildup and a fall. Plus the writing is really subtle and beautiful and fluid in this constant motion that forces you forward, like you’re being carried aloft by a stream of people even as you want to turn your head to see if what you saw at the side of the road was really there or if it was a trick of the light. !!!!!!!