mariella123's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
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
4.0
My favourite of the series so far.
I imagine that this would be a great book for someone trying to grapple with grief. The last paragraph gave me chills.
I always find myself wishing the characters in this series were a bit more fleshed out, I struggle to distinguish people at times. The character map at the beginning was really useful for this though. I think that's what would make me give this a 5.
I'm looking forward to the next one coming out!! These books are so cosy and really transport you.
I imagine that this would be a great book for someone trying to grapple with grief. The last paragraph gave me chills.
I always find myself wishing the characters in this series were a bit more fleshed out, I struggle to distinguish people at times. The character map at the beginning was really useful for this though. I think that's what would make me give this a 5.
I'm looking forward to the next one coming out!! These books are so cosy and really transport you.
Content Warnings
Minor: Mental illness, Death of parent, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
auroraizora's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Grief, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Chronic illness
Minor: Car accident and Suicide attempt
alexandrabelze's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
loved the change in scenery for this one!! it was so much fun meeting all of the new characters and getting to know them. kawaguchi never disappoints!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicide attempt and Terminal illness
Minor: Medical content
izzybla's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness
sarah984's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was fine but I didn't enjoy it as much as the other two books in the series so far. Mostly tragic dead woman stories about guys.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, and Terminal illness
Minor: Abortion, Car accident, and Alcoholism
lynxpardinus's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Mental illness, Car accident, Abandonment, and Cancer
Minor: Abortion, Bullying, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, and Infidelity
irisraerah's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The second book in this series was losing me, but this is the absolute nail in the coffin. I only avoided DNFing it out of stubbornness. Before Your Memory Fades is the franchise location of an idea that already struggled with execution and expansion. Literally. We are introduced to a second café with the same time travel magic, many of the same characters, and the same increasingly exhausted tropes of women dying of illness just to convince other people to look on the bright side. Time and time again, themes of gender arise in this series that reveal the extremely shallow understanding of women the author has, with self sacrifice to explicitly support a less talented male love interest being a theme in a full half of the stories in this book.
If you are familiar with the film studies phenomenon of "dead wife footage" (which I will now over explain in a condescending way that reveals I don't trust you to put a simple 2+2 together for a rather simple concept, oh hey like Kawaguchi does seven times a chapter!), where a dead wife or girlfriend is remembered, either in home videos, dreams, or memories shot in brighter, more nostalgic colors, showing her to be carefree and loving and always centering the protagonist above herself usually to the point of lacking any discernable personality herself beyond "innocent and beautiful," you've already read this book. Put it down, perhaps search up Caitlyn Rylie's TikTok about this trope, and move on with your day.
Continuing with sexist tropes, the women in this book This is a tired trope, and the book makes no notice of it. It appears handwaved away as all the other arbitrary rules that the author established for the café are. This book does include a quick moment to breakdown one of the main rules of the time travel magic, but it feels defensive, like the author is trying to pretend his magic system is more considered and coherent than it is.
Finally, this book is extremely redundant. Not just story to story, but page to page, sometimes paragraph to paragraph, the exact same things get repeated over and over. It would be one thing if this was to give context only to things that occurred in the earlier books, which in the books defense does occur, but it repeats everything two or three times minimum. For such a short book it boggles my mind to say this, but this book would be leagues better if it had one third the word count it does.
For "Baby's First Book About Grief," maybe you could get something out of this. If you're slightly introspective at all, have ever experienced grief yourself, or just don't enjoy three pages of incorrect analysis about the "To Be or Not To Be" monologue from Hamlet (wild to get a reference about suicide so wrong in a book with themes of death and suicide, though the book a very elementary understanding of both so what did I expect), read something else.
If you are familiar with the film studies phenomenon of "dead wife footage" (which I will now over explain in a condescending way that reveals I don't trust you to put a simple 2+2 together for a rather simple concept, oh hey like Kawaguchi does seven times a chapter!), where a dead wife or girlfriend is remembered, either in home videos, dreams, or memories shot in brighter, more nostalgic colors, showing her to be carefree and loving and always centering the protagonist above herself usually to the point of lacking any discernable personality herself beyond "innocent and beautiful," you've already read this book. Put it down, perhaps search up Caitlyn Rylie's TikTok about this trope, and move on with your day.
Continuing with sexist tropes, the women in this book
Spoiler
lose their magic when they get pregnant.Finally, this book is extremely redundant. Not just story to story, but page to page, sometimes paragraph to paragraph, the exact same things get repeated over and over. It would be one thing if this was to give context only to things that occurred in the earlier books, which in the books defense does occur, but it repeats everything two or three times minimum. For such a short book it boggles my mind to say this, but this book would be leagues better if it had one third the word count it does.
For "Baby's First Book About Grief," maybe you could get something out of this. If you're slightly introspective at all, have ever experienced grief yourself, or just don't enjoy three pages of incorrect analysis about the "To Be or Not To Be" monologue from Hamlet (wild to get a reference about suicide so wrong in a book with themes of death and suicide, though the book a very elementary understanding of both so what did I expect), read something else.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Terminal illness, Death, Suicide, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief
hello_lovely13's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Mental illness, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness
Minor: Car accident and Pregnancy
neverlandangel's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Death of parent
georgiacatt's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I much preferred the first book in this series, but I thought the continuation from the original was very good. I think the idea of returning to the past becomes slightly more predictable and repetitive but the stories of each character are varied so it is still a nice read. Once again, there is a philosophical idea that runs throughout each short story and links it all together at the end which is very effective.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness