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merrukainen's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
3.75
shimmery's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars.
Cute concept — a cafe in which you can travel back in time, but only if you’re sitting in a certain seat and don’t move from it, meaning you’ll only be able to see people who are in the cafe at the time you travel to. Nothing you do in the past will change the present, and you have to return to the present before the coffee in the cup you are poured at the start of your journey goes cold.
Those rules and a couple of others are repeated MANY times at the start of the book. I felt that I liked the book more in the second half and would maybe have rated it 3 stars based on that, but the beginning was just so tedious to me. There’s a whole page describing someone paying for a cup of coffee — from taking their wallet out, to counting out the money, to the cashier repeating the amount they are given, counting out change, etc. Things like that make it feel like the author was trying to hit a word count by padding out the book with mundane details and repetition.
It would have been nicer as a short story in my opinion — the last three time travels are definitely more interesting than the first one.
Cute concept — a cafe in which you can travel back in time, but only if you’re sitting in a certain seat and don’t move from it, meaning you’ll only be able to see people who are in the cafe at the time you travel to. Nothing you do in the past will change the present, and you have to return to the present before the coffee in the cup you are poured at the start of your journey goes cold.
Those rules and a couple of others are repeated MANY times at the start of the book. I felt that I liked the book more in the second half and would maybe have rated it 3 stars based on that, but the beginning was just so tedious to me. There’s a whole page describing someone paying for a cup of coffee — from taking their wallet out, to counting out the money, to the cashier repeating the amount they are given, counting out change, etc. Things like that make it feel like the author was trying to hit a word count by padding out the book with mundane details and repetition.
It would have been nicer as a short story in my opinion — the last three time travels are definitely more interesting than the first one.
clallama's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
90% of it was in its premise, the rest was kind of predictable
dogzilla's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
secretofmusing's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
vivian_m_anderson's review against another edition
slow-paced
4.25
it was lovely! very sweet and unlike any book I've read before. makes me want to read more of kawaguchi's books