Thank you for the update @ sneikkimies.
I most enjoyed chapter 3, Shimamura's POV. Her perspective offers a clearer view of what is going on around her, and the pacing is more pleasant for me.
Chapter four was cute ...and unexpected. I'm really curious about the V-day message. I recall her (Shimamura) being explicit in wanting Adachi to make friends, etc., but that signing up for a Valentine's day message to be displayed in public seems a bit of a jump. I wonder if I missed something, or if we're going to get any further insight. (I'm kind of thinking not since we're moving into a the next novel/stage.)
EDIT: Reading chapter three would help... *facepalm* *done*
I'm really taken with the contrasting scenarios in chapters three and four; how differently Shimamura experiences the train ride with Tarumi vs Adachi, running into the unnamed middle school friend versus Tarumi... I also find the questions we see Shimamura pose to herself pretty frank and honest. Many of them are mundane, every day things that we do not really think about anymore. (And maybe it's been a long time since I've read a novel that is a coming of age story.)
I'm not a fan of love triangles or lots of side characters, but this story could use an agent to catalyze change in Adachi and Shimamura's relationship. Adachi is incapable of advancing things (enough) on her own, and Shimamura is ambivalent (mostly). Shimamura's relatively acute awareness of Tarumi ...is interesting. We're seeing her generally put more effort into relationships and life.
What is up with the theme of "she's like a mother", "she's like a sister", "What if I were her dog?"...?? I realize that people growing up in places where homosexual relationships are not normalized wouldn't include "what if she were my girlfriend", but why not just "Is this what really close friends are like?" (since neither girl has many friends). Shimamura seems to have landed on this more normal option at times, but overall this seems like a cultural difference...or something else I just find kind of strange.
The final chapter felt mostly like filler. Didn't really learn anything new about Adachi -- just pages and pages of anxiety and a very small world: "myself" and Shimamura. The final scene however was a fitting way to end.
EDIT: One final thought: The part about the importance of the classroom and how the relationship would fall apart if they weren't in the same class hit hard. That's something I've thought a lot about after graduating and leaving school. You really can't overstate the convenience of people self-identifying their interests (at least in college) in being in the same class, club, etc. It was way easier to find people with whom you might have things in common in the "real" world in school.
Looking forward to the next installment.
P.S. I apologize for the book. I just really like this series.
grammar notes
Chapter 3:
It was there that I at last made ascertain what it was that I was meant to do.
I'm guessing "made ascertain" should be "ascertained". I also find it slightly less awkward sounding if you replace "there" with "then" ...and perhaps also "at last" with "finally..
Chapter 5:
There were way more bikes than normally.
"There were way more bikes than normal."
P.S. Thanks again sneikkimies.
last edited at Oct 19, 2019 4:52PM