Play Book Tag discussion

This was recommended to me and the premise sounded very promising. I liked the finding of the lunch box and diary by the couple in Whaletown, BC and their interest in the girl who was bullied and considering suicide in Japan. The woman is an author, actually the author of this book and her husband is an ecologist. The girl writes of her life and says that she is going to include the story of her great grandmother, Jiko.

However for me this was a slog. Though I was interested in the outcome and did finish, it was slow going. It reminded me of Haruki Murakami's novels and I am not a fan. They all give the impression that suicide is on every Japanese mind whether it is committed or not. I have read some beautiful Japanese literature that did not discuss that topic and I look forward to finding more, but I am determined to look more closely at the blurbs before doing so.

Oh, I'm sorry you didn't like it. I loved it, but because of the uplifting parts, the quirkiness, the Japanese slang, and the zen buddist grandmother. I also really connected with the island that the author lived on. I think the cover is misleading because I was expecting a light YA book, But it also made it easier for me to read the depressing parts, because I felt sure that there would be a happy ending. It took me a while to read it though, because I needed to take breaks in between. It's definitely NOT a beach read.