aryelee 's review for:

If Cats Disappeared From The World by Genki Kawamura

5.0

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I love the movie adaptation of Seka Neko. I watched it in theaters in Japan and it's followed me ever since. And yet, somehow, it took until now, 9 years later, to finally read the novel it was based on and I only have one thought: why didn't I read this sooner????

This novel has everything I love reading and writing about: grief, love, life, healing, family. There's so much humor packed into this little novel to give us time to breathe between the introspective paragraphs on life, death, and the pieces of ourselves we leave in other people's lives. This is such an honest read with a narrator who is so normal and unassuming that he could be any one in the crowd, but he's still special and meaningful because he existed and loved and was loved. 

I can't even articulate the exact things that made me love this novel so much. I nearly cried on my lunch break reading this. It's an experience, a novel you come out of changed. Just trust me and read this. Let it leave its mark on you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Death of parent