Reviews
(4.15/5)This was my first longer novel in Japanese, though not the first novel overall.
From a language learning point of view, I learnt quite a few words from jpdb.io beforehand, in order to enjoy the process of reading the novel more. I read through the whole book, without mostly looking up anything, as I just wanted to enjoy it. In the beginning, it was really tough. Took me about ten minutes at first, to read and understand a page. In the end, it didn't feel as tedious anymore. What I personally learnt through this journey is that it's okay to not understand every single word in a sentence. Even though I knew this before, practicing it and not stopping every sentence to consult a dictionary is something entirely different.
From a story perspective - I'm not the target audience of this novel. I don't like drama and bought the novel mostly for the fantasy aspects. The beginning and mid section were fine, but didn't really catch me. The last ~150 pages, though, it had me hooked, and I breezed through the rest of it within one or two weeks, enjoying it very much. Of course, a solid exposition is required to write a good ending like this.
In summary, I'd recommend this novel - from a plot point of view - to people who like drama and interpersonal relationships to be the main focus of the story.
A somewhat slow slice of life fantasy story about school problems.
As others have said, the language in this book is easy to understand. The kanji used are also pretty straightforward. As for the story, some of the situations made me feel actual anger, worry or happiness, so there's that. People have said the ending is amazing and unexpected. I don't know about that. Without spoiling anything, I must say that I guessed almost all the plot twists around page 150, so the ending was... , well... , as I expected it would be. It's a good book, though.
Good book, especially as a relatively early book language wise.
*would give Overall 4.5 and Entertainment 3.5 if half stars were possible. It was my third full book that I read in Japanese, and I felt like the difficulty was very fitting for this :)
Arguably spoiler (pacing): It does take a while to get going and especially some of the middle parts were slow
It took me a long while to read this, so I can't say I was absolutely absorbed by the story, but I did enjoy it and never considered dropping it, which I'm not against doing if I don't enjoy something.
So far the best Japanese story I have read
The story could have easily been sliced in half and have remained the same in its plot sequence. Despite the book's length, this is an excellent title that raises reader awareness on the social issue of futōkō (不登校), or school truancy in Japan. Specifically, it delves into various students' lives and the psychology behind their decisions to stop attending classes. When the 7 middle school students end up in a solitary castle in a realm behind their shining mirrors, they may receive one granted wish if they find a key that Okami-sama indicates is in the castle.
Although I don't have nearly as much familiarity with Japanese writing styles to 100% confirm this, I have heard and read multiple Japanese native speakers state that this writing style is not always coherent. Also, I wouldn't consider this story a mystery despite some Japanese bookseller sites marketing it as one. Nonetheless, it is excellent in its own right and the anime and mnga adaptations are amazing too. I recommend this.
まあまあだけど、初めは遅すぎ
お気に入り度：⭐️⭐️⭐️
日本語能力試験レベル：~N3
❤️好きな登場人物：水守理音、長谷川風歌、オオカミさま
✨好きなところ：面白いシナリオ・いじめについて話す・懐かしい感じ
🖋好きなセリフ：「普通かそうじゃないかなんて、考えることがそもそもおかしい。」
📝レビュー： 正直に、この本にはちょっとがっかりさせられた。どうしてかというと、サバイバルゲームの物語を期待していたからだ。その上、こころ以外の登場人物のことは、最後の最後までよく分からないのは、とても残念だ。それでも、それぞれのキャラの悲しい境遇を知り、感動し、涙が出てしまったこともあった。
Conflicted emotions
If I were to rate this book on the first 25%, I'd give it 4＊
If I were to rate this book on the last 25%, I'd give it 5＊
If I were to rate this book on most of what's in between, I'd give it 3＊
Some parts in the middle 50% were good, had lots of emotional impact and character growth, but some of the parts are simply bad writing. It's really hard to make it sound like I'm not just being grumpy without spoilers though. Among other things, there were some oddities/inconsistencies in character behavior and a 22 page long part that is utterly pointless (No, I am not exaggerating) that was pretty frustrating to read and could have been cut by at least 15 pages without changing anything. (Again, not exaggerating)
I feel like why people are rating this book so highly is mostly because the ending had really high emotional impact. I read that 22 page part, which I had to put the book away for multiple times because reading it was so incredibly tedious, just yesterday and got really frustrated about it. Now I... don't really care anymore. It was still incredibly unnecessary, but it doesn't matter as much.
Over all this is a good book, doubly so because it's fairly easy for how interesting it is. If you like them feels, give it a try.
As of writing this review, かがみの孤城 is my favorite Japanese book. It's well written, has good pacing, and has a fantastic climax and ending. In terms of difficulty, it's among the easiest Japanese books that I've read.
While かがみの孤城 has fantasy elements, more than anything it's about the characters, their relationships, and their struggles. If you enjoy light fantasy or character-driven stories, you should give this book a shot!
Kokoro is avoiding going to school when a light shines from the mirror in her bedroom. She can enter through this mirror into a castle where 6 other middle school students are assembled. They are told by a wolf masked little girl that within the castle is a hidden key, and if they find it their wish will be granted.
This is a slower developing story because it's about human relationships moreso than it is about fantasy. Really enjoyable though. Highly recommend listening to the audiobook as it's incredibly well produced.
To be fair, I'm not the target audience for this book: I don't particularly care for middle school problems, nor am I a fan of fantasy settings. So my low enjoyment may partly stem from that fact. I was however prepared to give the book a fair chance. If you asked if I would buy the book for a fantasy-loving middle-school kid, my answer would still be no.
My biggest gripe with the book was that it was too sentimental (and the audiobook made it even more so). My second biggest gripe was that it was way too long for its content, and its structure was uneven. It almost felt to me that it was in need of a good editor to make everything tighter. Even the few actually exciting parts tended to be interrupted abruptly by less exciting narrative, breaking the flow.
I think this a story that might have benefited from the multiple narrators approach. Yet we get one single narrator for hundreds of pages, then suddenly switch to multiple points of view for a small part. At that point, it felt jarring more than refreshing, again as if the editor had somehow missed it.
All that said, the book does offer interesting insights into Japanese society and Japanese way of thinking and handling things, and the language is straightforward and perfect for learners. The audiobook is well produced if you like full dramatization. Be prepared for music, sound effects, sobbing, whining, shouting, the works.
(I listened to the audiobook while reading along, so my review is for both media)
Upon enrolling in the local middle school, Kokoro loses the courage to actually attend. While isolating herself in her room, her bedroom mirror begins to glow, allowing her access to the mirror castle, where she meets six other children who are supposed to be in school and a younger girl in a wolf mask.
Early on, the novel places the pieces that will be set into motion later on. As a result, the actual story builds very slowly in the first half, but once all the pieces slowly fall into place, it becomes clear that this is really the only way this story could have been told. Over the last 200 pages I couldn't put it down at all!
Great first book, boring plot
If you're early into your book reading journey then this novel is definitely a great introduction language-wise. According to jpdb, you'll encounter 6568 unique words across 247367 characters. Compare that to a slightly harder book like 六人の嘘つきな大学生 @ 8049/164411, almost half the ratio in exposure. There's lots of easy dialogue, a lot of repeated concepts, so lots and lots of reinforcement. However, it is written in quite a ... stiff, fact-y, spell-it-out-for you way. It doesn't flex the literary Japanese brain you're probably trying to nurture as much as other books, but perhaps that isn't what's good to look for in easier material.
But yeah, the story bored the absolute hell out of me. I just could not relate to these kids. Perhaps it's just cultural differences and I can't fathom friendships developing so slowly that you're still finding out fundamental facts about each other after hanging for literal months, but really I think the author was forced to lean hard into these kids being absolutely inept at critical thought, otherwise the plot just falls apart. As others said, the last third of the book really does pick up the pace, and the ending is quite nice, but it was just not worth whatever the hell the first two thirds of the book was.
I don't regret reading it from a learning point of view, but I'm so fucking happy to be moving on from it.