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

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5


Before the Coffee Gets Cold took me over a month to finish, which is longer than usual for me—especially considering the book’s length. I typically take my time with audiobooks, but this one felt particularly slow, and unfortunately, there’s a reason for that.

To start with the positives, I think the premise of this book is very intriguing. The concept—a café where customers can travel back in time, but only until their coffee gets cold—creates a unique backdrop for exploring themes about time, regrets, and how we spend our moments. It’s clear that this story has a deeper message to convey, and I appreciate that intention. However, I found that what was given to the reader just didn't work for me.

A major issue I had with Before the Coffee Gets Cold is its pacing. The story feels overwritten, with a lot of repetition that didn’t add much to the narrative. The dialogue often struck me as odd and stilted, which might be due to the challenges of translation. While I can understand and forgive to an extent, there’s just too much of it to ignore. This problem was exacerbated by the audiobook format—each chapter is around an hour long. The combination of lengthy chapters and repetitive prose made this relatively short book feel much longer than it needed to be.

As for the characters, I found them to be just okay. The format—each chapter having its own beginning, middle, and end—means that we only spend a limited time with each character. Since each story is mostly self-contained, with characters sometimes crossing paths in other chapters, we don't get the opportunity to deeply connect with any one of them. This is understandable given the structure, but it makes the characters feel one-note, and they never made a lasting impression on me. Each story felt sweet but rather basic, with messages that felt a bit too obvious.

The lack of emotional impact was especially disappointing. For example, the story about
a mother meeting her unborn child
had the potential to be very moving, but because
the mother is such a minor character, I didn’t feel a strong connection to her
. While the scenario is undeniably sad, I wish there had been more build-up to create a deeper emotional resonance. If I had to rank the stories, I’d say that
the sisters’ story was my favorite, followed by the married couple, then the mother and child, and lastly the daters
. However, none of them really left a lasting impact on me. I think this story would have worked better as a visual narrative, like a movie or TV show. The café’s atmosphere and the fleeting, heartfelt moments might have felt more impactful with the aid of visuals and music, which could bring the characters and their emotions to life in a way that the book didn’t quite manage to do.

Overall, I really wanted to like Before the Coffee Gets Cold more than I did. I expected a cute, short read, but instead, I found myself slogging through it. The characters and the writing are what held it back. While I can see why others might find beauty in its themes and approach, it just fell flat for me. No hate to those who love it, but it wasn’t quite my cup of coffee lol.
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