店長がバカすぎて

Surprisingly difficult, but fun

I was kind of surprised by how lost I was with this one. I listened to the audiobook, and I couldn't follow a lot of the inner monologues from the protagonist. The narration is spoken in a very fast and casual manner, so that's probably the main reason why it felt difficult to follow.

That said, the narration is what carried the book for me. The narrator does an amazing job portraying the personality in every character, and it also made it a lot funnier. The story Is light hearted and low stakes, but it did grab my attention quite a bit. The relationship between the protagonist and 店長 is specially funny

More Miss Than Hit in This Bookstore Tale

I really struggled to finish this book — maybe my current Japanese level played a role, who knows — but I pushed through because I don’t like giving up.

Unfortunately, it just wasn’t a page-turner for me. As someone who loves Japanese bookshops, I thought the setting and concept would appeal to me, but it didn’t quite land. The second half does pick up a little, but overall I found it hard to stay engaged.

If you’re curious about it, my suggestion would be to read a sample first before committing. It might click for some readers, but it just wasn’t for me.

For Fans of Aggretsuko or 定時で帰ります

I honestly wasn't expecting to like this novel that much but I think it's one of my fabourite books of the year so far.

I loved that main character's internal voice juxtaposed with her speaking voice as she tries to deal with idiots on all sides, quelling her internal rage as she put on a professional face. The audiobook along with the novel was exceedingly good and made these moments even better. (It reminded a lot of Aggretsuko but a human in a book shop instead of a red panda in an office.)

I love how she wasn't perfect either. She just felt human.

And I was honestly surprised with how good the story unfolded. It felt like a complete story instead of individual stories like so many Japanese character novels. Even small things I didn't think were a big deal came back in unexpected ways.

I found myself laughing out loud a lot reading this, and even gasping a few times in rage and/or surprise. A really fun novel.

The Japanese isn't too difficult if you're used to reading, but the author uses some niche vocabulary (which have furigana) that I often had to look up. This book was a good balance of easy to read while teaching me new things.