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A review by smilemore
Mina's Matchbox by Yōko Ogawa
3.0
read this book with my gorf
I’ve now officially written three different versions of this review, because my opinion of this book changed WILDLY from start to end.
Thematically, there are a lot of similarities between this and The Memory Police, but just in a much brighter context. We deal with nostalgia, youthful innocence, and looking back on all your favorite childhood toys and obsessions in a way that make for a very cute premise for a story.
For a 250-someodd-page book, this was a surprisingly slow read, because there was very little conflict for 75% of the story. The narrator - and most of the characters around her, for that matter - was never really fighting for anything, trying to overcome anything, and was overall just kind of a passive spectator in the random events that occurred around her. However, the last quarter of this book really changed that, and actually redeemed a lot of my complaints with this book.
With that in mind, I do think this would be a PERFECT book recommendation for a very young girl who has a passion for reading. This book is cute, funny, light-hearted, and very, very easy to read, so I could totally imagine a 12 year old girl having a blast imagining themselves in Tomoko’s shoes.
Anyway, to summarize: this is a very cute story with many issues, but I think it actually holds its own and stands strong by the end. Not perfect, but definitely something I can see myself thinking back on well
my rating: 6/10
my gorf’s rating: 6/10
I’ve now officially written three different versions of this review, because my opinion of this book changed WILDLY from start to end.
Thematically, there are a lot of similarities between this and The Memory Police, but just in a much brighter context. We deal with nostalgia, youthful innocence, and looking back on all your favorite childhood toys and obsessions in a way that make for a very cute premise for a story.
For a 250-someodd-page book, this was a surprisingly slow read, because there was very little conflict for 75% of the story. The narrator - and most of the characters around her, for that matter - was never really fighting for anything, trying to overcome anything, and was overall just kind of a passive spectator in the random events that occurred around her. However, the last quarter of this book really changed that, and actually redeemed a lot of my complaints with this book.
With that in mind, I do think this would be a PERFECT book recommendation for a very young girl who has a passion for reading. This book is cute, funny, light-hearted, and very, very easy to read, so I could totally imagine a 12 year old girl having a blast imagining themselves in Tomoko’s shoes.
Anyway, to summarize: this is a very cute story with many issues, but I think it actually holds its own and stands strong by the end. Not perfect, but definitely something I can see myself thinking back on well
my rating: 6/10
my gorf’s rating: 6/10