Take a photo of a barcode or cover
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I wanted to know who killed the character in the second story. Also, the story of Hirasaka wasn’t revealed. There were a few bits in the book that were a bit too brutal for me, but also some snippets of wisdom which I liked. It was easy to read and I enjoyed it overall.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Another Japanese "comfort novel"? This one packs a punch that will bring tears to your eye.
This magical book sees the mysterious-even-to-himself Hirasaka running a photography studio housed between death and the afterlife, where the recently deceased stop to sort through photos of their life to assemble a somehow necessary "life-flashing-before-their-eyes" montage, with an opportunity to revisit one day of their life to capture a better photo.
It's again a repetitive novel but with only three iterations: a 92 year old lady with a full life, a middle-aged Yakuza gangster with a strange crew (it's a great tale!), and MILD SPOILER finally in the shortest tale a severely abused child who is only briefly there because she is enduring a near-death experience.
The conclusion is satisfying in that Hirasaka's story is - with a little reflection and 4th-dimensional thinking - almost fully revealed.
Rating this highly as in my opinion it uses the "Japanese Comfort Novel" genre as a bit of a sly disguise to take us by surprise with something slightly more impactful - one that will stick with me.
This magical book sees the mysterious-even-to-himself Hirasaka running a photography studio housed between death and the afterlife, where the recently deceased stop to sort through photos of their life to assemble a somehow necessary "life-flashing-before-their-eyes" montage, with an opportunity to revisit one day of their life to capture a better photo.
It's again a repetitive novel but with only three iterations: a 92 year old lady with a full life, a middle-aged Yakuza gangster with a strange crew (it's a great tale!), and MILD SPOILER finally in the shortest tale a severely abused child who is only briefly there because she is enduring a near-death experience.
The conclusion is satisfying in that Hirasaka's story is - with a little reflection and 4th-dimensional thinking - almost fully revealed.
Rating this highly as in my opinion it uses the "Japanese Comfort Novel" genre as a bit of a sly disguise to take us by surprise with something slightly more impactful - one that will stick with me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse
Moderate: Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dementia
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: War
The formatting of this book is similar to a few other popularly translated books from Japan, like When the Coffee Gets Cold and is written in 3 parts. It's a quick read and I liked that each story had a small twist. I was a little shocked at the content of the last arc so don't forget to read the CWs
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder
Minor: Animal death
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The format of this book is similar to many of the most popular translated Japanese lit fiction, like before the coffee gets cold. In that the book chooses to follow the plot of the side characters and the main character is to facilitate their character arc.
I don’t think this format works for every reader as sometimes we need more time and depth into the characters for us to really empathise with those characters stories. However, I think this book in particular. Excellent job at driving the fee of the book through these three side characters arc.
Without spoiling the story for other readers, I enjoyed that at the end of each chapter there was a twist a delight that made the book interesting enough to follow through to the end.
The final plot twist was done in a really clever way where Sanaka dropped enough hints and pieces to tie the whole story together. I thoroughly enjoyed how the delivery of that drove the final theme of hope through hardship.
I don’t think this format works for every reader as sometimes we need more time and depth into the characters for us to really empathise with those characters stories. However, I think this book in particular. Excellent job at driving the fee of the book through these three side characters arc.
Without spoiling the story for other readers, I enjoyed that at the end of each chapter there was a twist a delight that made the book interesting enough to follow through to the end.
The final plot twist was done in a really clever way where Sanaka dropped enough hints and pieces to tie the whole story together. I thoroughly enjoyed how the delivery of that drove the final theme of hope through hardship.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence
Minor: Drug use
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
So I loved this book
I picked it up for a buddy read with a friend, mostly because it looked like ‘before the coffee gets cold’, and we both love that series.
The concept of looking back at life and still accepting how you’ve chosen your path is the main theme in both stories, and following the ‘guiding character(s)’ in both is also a great edition to how the stories come off structure wise.
However, no matter how closely they resemble each other on paper, they have a world of difference between them.
Before the coffee gets cold is literately and poetically beautiful, forcing you to slow down and enjoy the simple descriptions of cherry blossoms and coffee steam. It also deals with the death or loss of something or someone very loved by the guests, in a much more detailed, raw and unflinching manner.
This, overall, makes them an extremely emotional and heartbreaking reads, while balancing it with just enough heartwarming moments and realizations, that you feel okay in the end.
Oppositely, ‘The lantern of lost memories’ deals with the subject of the visitors deaths, and helps them move on from the world. This subject is arguably much heavier than the loss of a husband to dementia for example. However, the book deals with it in a much more lighthearted manner, creating a world where it’s not scary to die so much as it is a pleasure to look back upon life and know the good you did. It was lovely and lighthearted is what I’m trying to say. But overall, I sort of missed the emotional gut punch. So just bellow 5 stars it goes.
I picked it up for a buddy read with a friend, mostly because it looked like ‘before the coffee gets cold’, and we both love that series.
The concept of looking back at life and still accepting how you’ve chosen your path is the main theme in both stories, and following the ‘guiding character(s)’ in both is also a great edition to how the stories come off structure wise.
However, no matter how closely they resemble each other on paper, they have a world of difference between them.
Before the coffee gets cold is literately and poetically beautiful, forcing you to slow down and enjoy the simple descriptions of cherry blossoms and coffee steam. It also deals with the death or loss of something or someone very loved by the guests, in a much more detailed, raw and unflinching manner.
This, overall, makes them an extremely emotional and heartbreaking reads, while balancing it with just enough heartwarming moments and realizations, that you feel okay in the end.
Oppositely, ‘The lantern of lost memories’ deals with the subject of the visitors deaths, and helps them move on from the world. This subject is arguably much heavier than the loss of a husband to dementia for example. However, the book deals with it in a much more lighthearted manner, creating a world where it’s not scary to die so much as it is a pleasure to look back upon life and know the good you did. It was lovely and lighthearted is what I’m trying to say. But overall, I sort of missed the emotional gut punch. So just bellow 5 stars it goes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Violence
Moderate: Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
“You see, once you get here, it doesn't matter how wealthy or important you were in life. All you're left with are your memories.”
If you’re looking for more stories like Before the Coffee Gets Cold then you'll have to get this one!
This wonderful life-affirming stories centred around what happen after you die like those who experience ‘memories flashing before your eyes’.
Set in a place between life and death, Hiraka’s photo studio will help each person to choose their most fond memories to be placed on a lantern. Once completed, the lantern will be spun to guide them to the afterlife.
I really like getting to know how each character live their lives especially the old woman from the first story.
I absolutely love the way how each story will eventually connect with each other and in just 200 pages this book manage to made me shed a few tears.
Overall, it’s a touching well-written story with meaningful and powerful messages scattered throughout the book.
I received an advanced review copy for free through Netgalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Huge thank you to the author and publisher!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse
Moderate: Child death, Death, Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, War
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
I was drawn into this book because of the interesting premise, and it is recommended for Japanese translated fiction fans, especially for fans of the 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' series. However I didn't find this to be cosy like the other translated fiction/magical realism books I've enjoyed as I just found it far too morbid.
It started off well and I was very intrigued as I really do love the expansion of the idea of 'your life flashes before your eyes before death'. The book is split into 3 parts, 3 separate stories. I just found myself lost by story 2 and I was very confused by the storyline. For me, it was the third story which just made me want to DNF, it was so sad and I didn't feel hopeful or find the positives within the story.
There is also an audiobook available for this book and I partly listened to this book via audio, I really liked the narration. If you are interested in reading this, I would highly recommend reading content warnings as the 3rd story in particular was very triggering to me.
1.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Sanaka Hiiragi for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.
It started off well and I was very intrigued as I really do love the expansion of the idea of 'your life flashes before your eyes before death'. The book is split into 3 parts, 3 separate stories. I just found myself lost by story 2 and I was very confused by the storyline. For me, it was the third story which just made me want to DNF, it was so sad and I didn't feel hopeful or find the positives within the story.
There is also an audiobook available for this book and I partly listened to this book via audio, I really liked the narration. If you are interested in reading this, I would highly recommend reading content warnings as the 3rd story in particular was very triggering to me.
1.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Sanaka Hiiragi for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Interweaving 3 stories of disparate characters who each find themselves at the end of their lives with the task of looking back, this novel is a beautiful exploration of life that manages to be eternally hopeful even when exploring tough characters a situations.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was such an amazing read. Short but powerful. I love the concept of this book. That lets you believe that maybe going afterlife is not so bad. The concept was great. And I love how each of them complement each other. And make you reflect on many things. The kind f open-close adding was great. Just good, wise book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol
Minor: War