Lonely Castle in the Mirror

The No. 1 Japanese Bestseller and Guardian 2021 Highlight

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Lonely Castle in the Mirror (2021, Transworld Publishers Limited)

English language

Published Sept. 26, 2021 by Transworld Publishers Limited.

ISBN:
9780857527288

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5 stars (2 reviews)

7 editions

Comforting relatable fable about growing up

5 stars

There is a lot of the setting which is specific to Japan. The epilogue mentions some disturbing statistics about the mental health of Japanese middle school children, but there is also the tourist's pleasure of glimpsing bits of Japanese culture and geography half remembered from a previous visit.

The characters on the other hand are somehow universal underneath an exotic (to an outsider) interest in forms of address. The author does a great job of capturing the anxieties and traumas of not just the extreme cases, but the everyday challenges of growing up as the anxious and unpopular kid.

The plot is immanently spoilable, so I won't say much, except that there is a definite puzzle book here as well.

The book should probably come with a full suite of content warnings for (sensitive treatment of) child sexual assault, child death, and family member death. So although I can believe …

Review of 'Lonely Castle in the Mirror' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is one of these books that pulls you in and gets better and more compelling as it progresses. It deals with some very serious issues (all the protagonists are Japanese teenagers who for one reason or another do not go to school), and is part fairy tale, part YA fiction, part magic realism, part fantasy, but really quite hard to categorise.

It's very cleverly plotted, with a number of plot twists that come thick and fast towards the end, and involves a truly moving denouement.

Subjects

  • Language and languages