Scan barcode
A review by aotora
The Boy and the Beast by Mamoru Hosoda
3.0
I loved this story but I also had some issues with it.
The writing was okay, it did sound like someone was watching the movie and writing down what they saw happening on screen but it was still okay, could be worse. What annoyed me was the constant jumping between narrators, and that I didn't know who was speaking until the middle of their narration. It got really annoying really fast- I wish that the only narrator was either Kyuta either one of the other two, or if it was both of them but more balanced.
I also liked and hated the villain in this - there is this huge time skip of 8 years in the middle of the story and we basically just get: "oh he started off as a nice warm person but then he started questioning who he was and he became evil" His story would've been much, much better if they actually expanded on it instead of him just being super nice as a child and going insanely evil as an adult - I did like the climax though and I loved loved loved the relationship between Kyuta and Komatetsu, they bicker through the entire book but in the reality they form a really close father/son bond.
That being said, I really hated how quickly the whole conflict resolves- Kyuta wants to go back to the human world and live with his dad, he is hesitant because he also wants to stay with Komatetsu, he is fighting with himself, unsure about what he wants to do - then, Komatetsu gets reincarnated so he is out of the picture and voila, Kyuta can go live with his dad- I wish that they instead talked, and he actually had to decide without it being basically decided for him.
Overall, the story is good but maybe slightly rushed. The relationship between the main characters is amazing, funny and warm, it's just that the writing style and the rushed story kind of ruins the entire novel.
The writing was okay, it did sound like someone was watching the movie and writing down what they saw happening on screen but it was still okay, could be worse. What annoyed me was the constant jumping between narrators, and that I didn't know who was speaking until the middle of their narration. It got really annoying really fast- I wish that the only narrator was either Kyuta either one of the other two, or if it was both of them but more balanced.
I also liked and hated the villain in this - there is this huge time skip of 8 years in the middle of the story and we basically just get: "oh he started off as a nice warm person but then he started questioning who he was and he became evil" His story would've been much, much better if they actually expanded on it instead of him just being super nice as a child and going insanely evil as an adult - I did like the climax though and I loved loved loved the relationship between Kyuta and Komatetsu, they bicker through the entire book but in the reality they form a really close father/son bond.
That being said, I really hated how quickly the whole conflict resolves- Kyuta wants to go back to the human world and live with his dad, he is hesitant because he also wants to stay with Komatetsu, he is fighting with himself, unsure about what he wants to do - then, Komatetsu gets reincarnated so he is out of the picture and voila, Kyuta can go live with his dad- I wish that they instead talked, and he actually had to decide without it being basically decided for him.
Overall, the story is good but maybe slightly rushed. The relationship between the main characters is amazing, funny and warm, it's just that the writing style and the rushed story kind of ruins the entire novel.