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

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-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? Yes

4.25

Excellent collection of interrelated short stories in this cozy novel. They’re quite inventive albeit, many of them only get a little room to breathe. I wouldn’t mind if some of them were a tiny bit longer. That said, most of them do the job at tugging at the heart and engaging the mind. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

These stories deal with specific things that could cause sadness and regret. There are examples of tragedy throughout albeit the tone of the book is overall quite upbeat. There’s plenty of melancholy in this.