Monday, June 26, 2017

REVIEW: Seven Days of You by Cecilia Vinesse

I was really looking forward to reading Seven Days of You by Cecilia Vinesse. About a girl who has just one more week of living in Tokyo before moving back the US for good. In that time she falls out with her friends, works out some family issues, falls in love and says good bye to a city she adores.

I'm a huge fan of Japan and I was always going to be excited to read a book which felt like it might be a love letter to Tokyo ... and Seven Days of You definitely did feel like that at times.  I loved reading about Sophia and her friends traipsing around Tokyo, hanging out, seeing the sights, visiting their favourite places one last time.  I kind of loved them travelling around on public transit and stopping in convenience stores to pick up their favourite Japanese snacks and stuff. It was all so mundane but those details were what I loved the most.

I found it slightly weird that none of them seemed to speak Japanese and none of the characters were Japanese at all? Minor quibble though, I suppose but it just felt like ...is this realistic, or nah?

I particularly liked the family strife. With the dad in Paris and having another family and the back and forth about whether or not Sophia would live with him.  Also, Sophia's sister is definitely a highlight for me.  But I think the main emotional thrust to the story revolves around the romantic dramas.  With Sophia's unrequited crush on David and this thing that resurfaces once former friend and crush, Jamie comes back to Japan.

I really did enjoy this book ... but for whatever reason, the way it was written? my own personal preference? I didn't feel myself being as emotionally affected to the highs and lows of this story.  I wanted to be fully on board with everything that happened and riding that emotional wave along with Sophia ... I just wasn't.  Still, solid read.

4 comments:

  1. There are NO Japanese people in this book? Ugh. I knew it was a wise choice not to buy this, but I've resolved to one day borrow at the library. I'm a huge Japan fan, and if you're going to set your book in Japan, I want culture and life and to actually feel like we're in Japan, damn it! I don't really want to read about Americans being "tourists" in Japan. *eye roll* Anyway... glad that you still enjoyed it.

    Cass @ Words on Paper

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    1. :) I did enjoy it, but there are definite flaws to it. I'd be very interested to see what you make of it!

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  2. Thanks for linking this up to the British Books Challenge Michelle x

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