A review by clovetra
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

adventurous emotional lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

oh. i didn’t expect to be this sad. i am broken yet somehow not. this book is very confusing for my emotions. like on one hand i want to bawl my fucking eyes out, but on the other hand it’s somehow uplifting????
i’ll say this book really starts off slow. after reading the first chapter i really thought this was gonna be a 3-star for me. but my god that fucking second chapter. THAT SECOND CHAPTER.
my grandpa is going thru dementia right now so i’m not kidding i was sobbing like a little baby.
the third chapter was pretty sad as well, but then that final chapter hit me like a tonne of bricks. how is this book pulling on my major heart strings.
first an old man with dementia and then a kid without her parent?????????????
i think this book was engineered to psychologically break me /j
the characters felt pretty flat and one-dimensional apart from kei, and after the first chapter the plot felt kind of predictable. but i mean i think i just loved this book because it knew how to tug on my heartstrings.
i’m very conflicted with this because on the one hand yes i did cry and usually a book that makes me cry is an automatic 4-star (at least), but man the actual book itself was quite mediocre. i think if this book didn’t hit my tear triggers i would be very Meh on this.
i will say tho i really liked how when someone travels, if the people in the cafe are aware of the time travelling chair, they realise that person is from the future. idk i thought that was a neat addition you don’t see too often in books where people time-travel. like instant “oh hi ur from the future!” no ifs ands or buts. 
anyways shout out to hirai she seems cool 
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