Another winner of the 'This mystery is sugoi', another disappointment. At least here the disappointment is because this is very simple, and it reads as a manga without drawings, not because it is horribly written, makes no sense, the characters take stupid decisions and has risible twists (I am looking at you '一次元の挿し木' (I know, just Grand Prix winner) and 'さよならドビュッシー'). It is just... bland. There is this bakery, there are these little mysteries, and there are half-baked characters, that are not annoying, but not fully developed or relatable. Every little story is forgotten as soon as it is read.
We follow the “everyday mysteries” that college student Koharu encounters while working part-time in the bakery Nostimo and dreaming of debuting as a (romcom) mangaka.
✦ thoughts You’ll never find out what the mysterious smell is, but you’ll find out Doumae’s bread philosophies. Koharu is Sherlock Holmes but in a bakery and nobody dies. The mysteries are only earth-shattering in normal ways, like finding out that your crush has a crush on you, too.
While I don’t regret reading it (unlike that cursed book 変な家), I don’t like it enough to recommend it. Maybe it doesn’t resonate because I’m not Japanese and I’ve left behind my weeb days. Who knows?
Granted, the only book I’ve read that is even remotely like this is この世にたやすい仕事はない, and I enjoyed that much more than this one.
✦ characters The main character Koharu has the least personality in the entire cast. The other bakery employees and the owner Doumae have personalities, even fun ones, but Koharu exists as a viewpoint for the reader. You don’t particularly need to root for her, but one does wonder why she is even the “I” in the story when she has so little personality.
✦ plot There are five different stories, one each chapter, and each story revolves around a specific type? of bread and an ~everyday mystery associated with it. The stories aren’t complicated, and they’re probably supposed to be slice-of-life and heartwarming, but I mostly just found them boring except when Rena-sempai was directly involved.
Probably the weirdest part is when Tsuchiya writes self-harm into Satomi’s character, and having her give a reason like, “If I self-harm, then I will have no choice but to become a Vtuber,” like … it’s a rather terribly cavalier way of presenting self-harm, and we never go into any deeper discussions about it. Satomi has already stopped self-harming, anyway, she just associated the white bread dough with her own arm (okay).
✦ details 焦げたクロワッサンburnt croissant Koharu is looking forward to the live event she’s planning to attend with Yukiko, when Yukiko suddenly cancels, claiming she’s been pulled in to cover Rena-sempai’s shift at work. Did she really have to go on shift?
夢見るフランスパンdreaming french bread When Rena-sempai can’t make it to her shift because she’s eating seafood in Atami, Fukuo and Doumae pull in a part-timer from Nostimo’s patisserie, Satomi. Although Koharu and Satomi initially get along, Koharu is surprised by Satomi’s cold words about her dream of becoming a mangaka…
恋するシナモンロールbeloved cinnamon roll Two high school kids chitter-chattering away enter Nostimo, and Rena-sempai predicts that the two of them have feelings for each other but both believe it’s one-sided. Then there’s a commotion where the girl claims she “accidentally” spilled the guy’s coffee…
さよならチョココロネfarewell, chocolate cornet Two of Nostimo’s regulars, Rin and her mother Youko, are victimized by a purse-snatcher — but only grade schooler Rin’s wallet was stolen. What could possibly have been so valuable in Rin’s wallet?
思い出のカレーパンcurry bread of memory An elderly woman, Kozue, enters Nostimo looking for the curry bread she remembers her husband bringing home to her thirty years ago. With her husband gone, this curry bread is one of the few things that spark memories with him. Rena promises she and Koharu will find this curry bread for Kozue…
Also, a mystery swirls around Fukuo and her pending departure from Nostimo. Koharu feels that not everything is as it should be …
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was a unique little book. Told in the serial short format, it's a YA slice-of-life centred around a university student working part time in a bakery.
Firstly, I looooved the baked goods theme, particularly the history of each chapter's treat. The setting of the small, independent bakery gave a cozy feel with delectable descriptions of the treats and a little cast that we get to know along the way.
The mysteries were simplistic and not really the focal point of the stories: so advertising this as a 'cozy mystery' is probably the wrong call. That readership going in with those expectations may find it simplistic and underwhelming. Funnily, that's what I enjoyed about it: it wasn't super serious and was more about the characters than solving mysteries. From that perspective, it's very much a slice-of-life where we travel with a character through a year working at the bakery, learning about baking, meeting unusual customers, and building friendships.
Ironically, I feel like this book might've worked better as a manga. There are a lot of descriptions and some of the mystery hints were clunky and might've been more powerful in visual format.
I love the cover, but I was disappointed there wasn't a Golden Retriever in the story. Or a cat, come to think of it.
This was a nice book to spend a few afternoons with. Its rich food descriptions, sense of place, and interconnected little world are its strengths. 3.5/5
Thanks to Orion for approving my request to review this book on NetGalley. 🥖
Finished this novel that I started as part of a Japanese book club discussion! 3 stars 🌟! This book had a 'cosy mystery' tag to it, and was also really popular in Japan post release, which was why it piqued the interest of the members of the book club. Overall, it felt like a really simple read. I like the idea of cosy mysteries in this book, represented with a sense of seeing everyday moments through the lens of wonder. The book itself has 5 chapters, each narrating a different story, while drawing parallels to a type of bread and its origins. This form of narration was a refreshing perspective. Some moments however did fall flat for me.
i usually like cozy japanese/korean lit but this missed the mark for me. perhaps it was an issue with translation because a lot of the word choices/sentence structures seemed so simple and childish, like i was reading a children's book but with adult charactera. i know cozy lit of this genre tend to favor that kind of writing style, but this time it felt too simple and boring — it was hard for me to get through. the mysteries were slightly intriguing, sometimes the eventual discoveries and resolutions seemed too farfetched for me to see it as believable. i liked the vibe and atmosphere of the bakery, but other than that there really wasn't much i enjoyed here.