琥珀の夏

I really don't think the L28 this is at (as of Dec 2024) is accurate. There are quite a few legal terms in this book, some keigo, and a fairly varied writing style that makes it feel more difficult than a L30 book I finished in the past week-ish. I personally think L32-ish would be more appropriate.

As for the book itself - it's a very, very slow burn. I actually forgot what the book was supposed to be about while reading and had to go check the summary to remind myself why I was interested in the first place.

Having read this author before, I am starting to suspect she writes a certain type of character, and that type is anxious women/girls with low self esteem. While I love character analysis, this felt repetitive to me, especially as the two women leads in this story seemed more or less like copies of each other. I want a bit more variety. I also got a bit tired reading the endless internal dialogue worrying about every little thing.

If you're interested in reading about cults I don't think this really gives you much on that subject. It's touched on, but from a child's perspective mostly, and I kind of wonder if it'd even be considered a cult where I live since people can leave and are not ostracized from what I can tell.

Overall if you usually like this author's writing and characters you'll probably like this, but if this is your first time reading her I suggest a shorter book or one of her more highly regarded ones to start.