In short I'm very moved by this story 🥺 I'm a but familiar with Japanese literature and I knew going in that I would have some criticism, and unsurprisingly the depiction of women, especially young and through the eyes of a man, was disturbing at best. But I find that this aspect, although it very much annoys me, does not take away the qualities of the book altogether I loved approaching a huge philosophical concept like death "through the eyes of children", in a way that's a bit naive, raw and sometimes crossing huge boundaries. Adults really can't "play children" so it is not to say anything about them, but I believe the lens that was chosen being disturbing in a sense of practicality really brought me back to earth. Reading the phrase "I want to see someone dying" was a punch in the gut because obviously our relationship to death in society is quite ceremonial and delicate in a way, like glass that can shatter with a wrong breath towards it. But going at it with raw curiosity, with questions as practical as "What does it look like ? How does it feel ? Does it smell different ?" was an awakening experience. And that's going ovet the main theme of the whole book, so much stuff is explored on the surface it had me pause often, and these kinds of books are exactly my thing. So I'm very happy and moved