Final Thoughts - November

[Leander Public Library]

This month, our featured book was Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean. There will be spoilers for the book in this thread!

This month, our discussion prompts were written by a staff member, if you would like to use them. Otherwise, feel free to share any thoughts or questions you had! We'd love to see what you have to say about this book.

1. Izumi has several codenames used by her security team, like “Butterfly” and “Radish”. If you got to pick your own codename, what would you pick and why?

2. Throughout the novel, there are bits of newspaper articles about Izumi. What do you think of the role of the press throughout the novel? Do you think Izumi pays too little attention to it, or too much?

3. Discuss Izumi’s relationships with the imperial family and those that work for them. Which relationships do you think were positive for Izumi? Which ones do you think will change over the upcoming novel?

4. When asked why she came to Japan, Izumi says, “I came to figure out who I am, where I come from.” Do you think that she found the answers she was looking for?

5. What would you say was the hardest thing for Izumi to acclimate to in Japan? If you were in her shoes, what would be the hardest thing for you?

[Kristen]

Hellooooooooo ~

Look whose late to the party, like usual (me. It's me.) I actually read this book right on time last November, and then promptly didn't write anything. So yeah, my comments are filtered from six months ago (I really am sorry).

I think everyone knew that there were major The Princess Diaries vibes with this book, but I was still pretty excited for it. Princess Diaries was a pretty decent book back in the day (but I admit that I liked the movie better) and I adore Asian cultural novels. Generally, I get my fix in a fantasy/mythology novel, so this was a little different since it was super contemporary.

I gave the book 3 stars. It wasn't terrible, but I didn't particularly love it, either. There were two major issues that I had with it: 1) I felt like Izumi's bubbly personality was less quirky and more like the author was trying a little too hard, and 2) I am very, very tired of instalove romances.

I had high hopes for Izumi's relationship with her bodyguard (whose name I can't remember.) I have a thing for the tough guy/sweet girl trope. (Does anyone here watch K-dramas? If so, like "The K2" and "Healer" had a love child. And, yes, of course Ji Chang Wook can be the lead actor.) Unfortunately, I thought it was a little forced and didn't really love it at the end of it all.