A review by mothling
Before We Say Goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

2.25

 hmm i think this book, if read standalone would be quite good, however as a series it's beginning to really struggle because it's written with the capacity to be read as a standalone? and thus it never delves into anything original and each story feels the need to recap the same information with the characters responding in very similar ways, etc...

this installment made it particularly noticeable as each story focuses in on someone saying goodbye, so each story had a similar theme and hit the exact same story beats and because they're all tonally quite cozy, nothing ever goes wrong and it's just quite repetitive honestly.

i'm concerned kawaguchi is just planning to continue this series with no real foresight into how to mix things up or provide anything different and for me it's already getting stale. it makes me sad because i did love the core concept of the first book. :(