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Must read for Sayaka fans
When I read the original Bloom Into You manga, Sayaka was easily my favorite character throughout the entire thing. I always wished that she could have been a bigger focus but thankfully we have this light novel series for that.
This first volume is basically a prequel to the manga, the author even describes it as "Episode 0" of Bloom Into You. The story is split into 2 chapters, with the first chapter focusing on a story when Sayaka was in elementary and the second chapter focusing on events that happened to her in middle school. The first chapter only takes up 67~ pages, so I'd say the second chapter is definitely the "main' focus but I enjoyed both a lot.
Overall, I think the novel did a great job of building up Sayaka's character even more and showing what type of person she is. I had a lot of fun reading everything in her perspective and seeing how she views things. I think she is a great example of a complex character. If you liked the Bloom Into You manga and thought Sayaka was an interesting character, then you'll definitely like this book. Even if you were iffy on her in the manga, some of the events here might change your mind on her.
As for the difficulty, I don't think it is that difficult when it comes to vocab. There were a couple of "obscure" words every now and again but majority of the vocab used felt modern and common for a slice of life/romance type story. The more difficult part for me was how the author liked to phrase things. There were a lot of sentences that had me thinking "why did they phrase it like that". I asked around for clarity on some of them and had a few natives comment that they either never heard of something like that before or that it sounded unnatural for what it's worth.
While I have read a few VNs and those can have a lot of narration sections, this was the first novel I completed so some of my struggles could be due to that. With that said, I don't think its super difficult but reading a few beginner novels prior to this might have made it a more smooth read for me.