安達としまむら

I read those novels together with the anime when that one aired. I then went on to read up to the then newest volume 9. Compared to manga I haven’t that many novels, so that’s actually the bulk of my Japanese novel reading experience.

Language wise, I would say its rather difficult to follow. Most of the books is spend on the internal monologues of various characters, and their thoughts aren't exactly straight forward. It's full of metaphors, philosophizing, introspection and ideas that make don't make any sense when taken literally. Though I do like how introspective the series is.

I don't actually like the books. In my time thinking about the series between reading volume 9 and the release of volume 10 I've become pretty negative towards the series. To the point that I couldn't make myself read the 10th volume yet.

I've written about this in the forum and I'll just copy this here:

People say it’s a slow burn romance. But after having read 9 volumes I feel confident in saying that no actual burning takes place. In fact, the fuse seems longer than at the start. Yes, they “get together”. But that really feels like it’s because the MC has nothing else to do with her time or maybe she feels sorry for her partner. And then there are glimpses of possible conflicts or plot points that just never get any continuation. Instead we get AU (alternative universe) and flash forwards (the canon status of which is uncertain) short stories that cement that even as adults, no progress in their relationship or any character development took place. When reading, it seems like both characters seem to have obvious “flaws” in their personality. And you’d expect them to grow in certain ways. But that’s never happening. I guess it’s important to have stories about kinds of personalities without presenting those as flawed. I love it when introversion is presented as something that’s part of a character, not a flaw to overcome. But in this case I just can’t relate. And if the story isn’t about character growth it lacks something else to be about.