Okay...so where do I begin? Ah right context comes first. So Waiting For Me Yesterday in Spring WFMYIS is one of the only books Ive actually completed from start to finish. Growing up I was never interested in books and in school I would only pretend to read books simply staring at the words whilst getting lost in my thoughts in the meantime. I did however read 9 volumes of the Oregairu light novel but other than that Ive never completed a book from start to finish. I tried reading some classics such as Sherlock Holmes and Alices Adventures in Wonderland hoping that they would be the gateway into the medium but quickly realised that it wouldnt work out as I had hoped. The big dealbreaker is likely the language used. Being so old those books are hard to understand and in turn are simply tiring to read. Every other sentence I would be struggling to understand whats being said and would be searching up a new word in the dictionary. Eventually I conceded and tried my hand at a light novel instead namely WFMYIS yes I am not bothered to type the whole title every time. And to my fortunate surprise it was amazing. Honestly I could not ask for a better companion to guide me into the world of books than this book. Compared to the aforementioned classics the language is actually comprehensible and although there are words I dont fully know the meaning of sprinkled in they are words that I may have heard of before are actually used in the present day and words that I will benefit learning. Also they dont appear nearly as often. You dont know how thankful I am to read a book that isnt written in ciphertext. The other two books had me trudging through the pages whereas I was zooming through these. During the climax I was glued to my seat and read over a hundred pages in one go which I dont think Id ever done before. So needless to say it was a fun time and consequently I am here to review it. I supposeit would be appropriate to discuss the premise first. It certainly is not a novel concept time travel has been covered many times throughout all kinds of media however its always been a genre Ive had unwavering interest in. Piecing together clues connecting the dots of how timelines interact or even seeing the reacts of revealing the time travel to other members of the cast it never gets old. Despite being a common concept this book takes a rather interesting spin on it. Usually time travel media involve going only once forward in time back in time or being constantly stuck in a timeloop. WFMYIS goes back in time daybyday to slowly build up to an important date. This is particularly fascinating because since the end of each day connects to the start of the previous one experienced it has to be cleverly pieced together. Not only that but seeing the outcome and affects of what has already happened before it is experienced sets the book up for some great foreshadowing and helps build tension for what is to come. Delving into the story we experience a slowly unraveling thread of events leading up to a clear climax. This turning point is made apparent near to the very beginning of the book so tension is accumulated throughout. Each day we gather more and more information on what happened in the past few days and learn more about each character who were so far a mystery. The story relies less on huge highenergy events but more so on intimate moments between characters or subtle chilling moments alluding to something more serious or even sinister. This dripfeeding of information keeps you on edge. The structure definitely lends itself well to this style of storytelling before each chapter there is an interlude where we switch perspectives to the heroine gaining insight into her incentives and backstory. Since she is an extremely relevant character to the story gradually figuring out her intentions and picking up on certain details shown in the regular chapters but went unnoticed without this extra information certainly maintains a high level of engagement and is an effective way to get us to care about the characters more without distracting from the plot too much. Where this is especially useful is before the climax there is an alarming end to the chapter before suggesting that Akaris brother could be physically abusing her. The interlude is then used to detail these events on top of all of the suffering she put herself through to better her life and be with the one she loves. Truthfully this interlude was maybe the most harrowing and disturbing read Ive had. Although it wasnt considerably graphic or extreme it was the detailed and explicit dive into her thoughts and feelings that really conveyed the hopelessness of her situation that made it so heartbreaking even more so with the investment into making her likable as a character and getting us to care about her by showing us her perspectives through the interludes up to that point. And what this particular interlude did was set the stage perfectly for an emotionally charged and impactful climax. The climax involved a very intense set of events but what stood out to me the most was the thoughtprovoking nature of it. I will discuss the themes represented here later on but it made me think beyond the characters being good and bad and made the story a lot more grounded in reality. However ending it after the decision to save Akito would have been underwhelming. Thankfully before we are given a catharsis the true climax with tenfold the intensity comes crashing down on us. The girl who weve been made to care for so much tries to kill herself. Now suicide is a graphic concept and in fiction needs to be execute well to not come off as melodramatic or as if it is used for shockvalue. The author does an excellent job at heightening the emotional intensity enough for it to be immersive. Moreover it is realistic. Usually in these kind of scenes the person trying to kill themselves is no pun intended kind of sitting on the fence and doesnt take much convincing to stop them. Theres usually a scene of them bursting out crying mentioning some petty reasoning and then eventually giving up. In this scene Akari is completely determined and does not falter. She calmly explains her position to Kanae refuting any of his arguments and justifying all of hers. She had genuinely thought it through with sound and coherent judgement this was not a hysteric outburst. And thats what makes this scene so engaging. I was truly not sure whether or not she would die. To boot Kanae stands on the ledge offering to die with her and she isnt fazed. I was fairly convinced that the book would end with a doublesuicide. Luckily it didnt but the heights of tension that it reached made for a satisfying catharsis afterwards when everything is resolved and all lose ends were tied. In my opinion this was a fantastically written buildup climax and conclusion. On the other hand I do have some qualms with it. Firstly it was not particularly shocking. Although there were elements that surprised me of course I was constantly theorizing what could have happened in my head.For example I had theories that Kanae had actually killed Akito in the past once he found out that he was abusing Akari. I also theorised that maybe Akari had some elaborate plan to get Kanae to kill him and to be with him since she loved him so much. Even though the truth was entertaining these theories could have arguably been more exciting albeit much harder to pull off. A plot twist like that could have been more hardhitting. Secondly sort of following up from the previous point it was quite cliche at times. For example having a childhood friend who falls in love with the main character because he was the only one who stood up for her is a very common trope in anime and manga. Also the main characters reaction to the timetravel was also very stereotypical and expected. We all knew that the timetravel would take place so spending so much time showing how shocked he was and trying to convey that it really was happening was kind of stale. And although I was mostly entertained throughout the first few chapters were pretty uneventful at times. Still the story was very well thought out and written. Moving on to the characters we have our main two Kanae and Akari and then some other side characters such as the grandma Eri Akito and a few more. There were also some that were rather obsolete such as the friendly police officer and Akitos girlfriend. The only characters that really got development though were the main two. One massive strength of the book is that it is written from a firstperson perspective. With the interludes this extends to the heroine Akari as well. As aforementioned I havent read many books but from the little I have read firstperson perspectives are my favourite. There is a level of instant empathy and relatability when hearing the thoughts of the character making us care more about what happens to them. Take for example the emotional interlude I discussed earlier if that had been told from a thirdperson perspective I dont think it would have been nearly as poignant. Hearing firsthand the despair and suffering from the girl herself drives home the horrible situation much more in my opinion in a way that wouldnt be as significant in thirdperson. The author is able to write very explicitly detailed monologues that take a deep dive into the characters thoughts not only to flesh out the plot but to really humanize themmakingthem feel more like people and less like characters. The characters themselves arent particularly quirky or unique. Kanae is sort of arunofthemill teenager who has been put into a sticky situation. Akari is a little more unique in regards to the strength of her feelings for Kanae and the hardwork and tenacity she puts in. Due to this I would definitely argue that this book is more heavy with the story than its characters. A lot of the monologuing relates to the story or is simply to describe the events happening in the moment. Although as I mentioned there is a substantial amount that is used to humanize them I would say that there is more emphasis on what is happening to them than their morality or who they are as a person. Something that does stand out though is the dialogue and interactions. It somehow is able to remain realistic whilst still entertaining and engaging. There is clear chemistry between the cast and because of this the romance between Akari and Kanae doesnt feel superficial or contrived. Even in the suicide scene there is still cleverly written comedy and teasing. As a whole the characters are good and entertaining but dont stand out too much. This isnt that detrimental considering there is a larger focus on the plot which isnt a problem at all when you look at how that turned out for the story. Now lets talk about the themes. The book as I mentioned has its priority set on the plot and does not branch too heavily into other aspects such as the characters and themes. However it does present some interesting ideas. Circling back to the thoughtprovoking nature I mentioned in reference to them deciding whether or not to let Akito die the book questions your morality quite directly. We are made to think about whether we agree with the decision to let Akito die or not. We have plenty of reason to want him to die: he hits his sister frightens her with his friends steals her hardearned money and is generally just a horrible person. But even still does he deserve to die? And is that our or the main characters decision to make? The book asks you if you believe in second chances or if you think theres no turning it around for Akito if what hes done is too much to be forgiven. Initially the main characters decide on letting him die. Its the easy way out after all. No more abuse no more fear and one less awful person on the earth. And the book portrays this as not a negative decision. In fact it really is hard to argue against it. However personally I believe in second chances. Picturing a future where Akito would turn it all around right his wrongs and fix his life I wouldnt be able to deny that man that opportunity because I have little faith it would happen. Not only that but I would not be able to live my life knowing that Im the reason he isnt walking around on the planet anymore. The book acknowledges the pain and grief that would bring and demonstrates a great display of hope with Kanae saving his life. I dont think that a well illustrated theme needs to be one that I agree with but I cant deny that it was very satisfying to see Kanae go back on his decision and go to save his life. Other than that theme there are some lightly explored themes such as bullying and of course the romantic element but what I discussed is what I believed was explored the best. The final thing I want to talk about and this is something Im not used to talking about since this is my first book review is the descriptive writing. Now to preface I wasnt amazing at English in school. I got halfdecent grades in it and my own creative writing was pretty average. Still with the little insight that I have I really enjoyed the writing in this book. The descriptions were so vivid and exciting to read. It never rambled on too long overdetailing any description but still managed to paint a clear picture in my mind of whatever was happening. At the moment Im trying to get into writing myself and I must admit I took a few notes here and there. Of course the book is Japanese so a lot of credit for the descriptive writing goes to the translators especially for the vocabulary used but the foundation by the original author is very strong. Truthfully some of the most enjoyable parts of the book were descriptions of simple things like a cherry blossom falling into Akaris hand or watching over the town from the rooftop of the school. With other older books that I dont understand the language of its hard for me to appreciate this facet of the writing but with a book like this it really is a joy to read through and experience. In conclusion I am very pleased with this book as a whole especially as an introduction in the medium of books. I think reading singlevolume lightnovels like this is a good gateway into books so that might be my modus operandi for the foreseeable future. Despite some problems or criticisms here and there it is a very complete experience with many emotional ups and downs and Im glad I picked it up.