Friday Friyay: 'Lone Castle in the Mirror' by Mizuki Tsujimura, trans. Philip Gabriel

Happy Friday! I've been in Germany for almost two weeks now and since Monday I've also got WiFi access again, hallelujah! Not having WiFi was weirdly good in a detox-way and I got loads of reading done, but I am also happy to be connected to the grid again! Turns out it is quite important to have access to your emails when your mid-emigration xD Anyways, I'm getting settled in here and so is the cat. Work starts officially next week, so these are my last few days of freedom! One of the books I'm gonna start reading this weekend is Lone Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura.

In a tranquil neighborhood of Tokyo seven students are avoiding going to school – hiding in their darkened bedrooms, unable to face their family and friends – until the moment they find the mirrors in their bedrooms are shining.

At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives into to a wondrous castle straight out of a Grimm’s fairy tale. This whimsical place, oddly lacking in food and running water but full of electrical sockets, is home to a petulant girl in a mask, named Wolf Queen and becomes their playground and refuge during school hours. Hidden within the walls they’re told is a key that will grant one wish, and a set of clues with which to find it. But there's a catch: the key must be found by the end of the school year and they must leave the premises by five o'clock each day or else suffer a fatal end.

As time passes, a devastating truth emerges: only those brave enough to share their stories will be saved. And so they begin to unlock each other's stories: how a boy is showered with more gadgets than love; how another suffers a painful and unexplained rejection and how a girl lives in fear of her predatory stepfather. As they struggle to abide by the rules of the game, a moving story unfolds, of seven characters trapped in a cycle of misunderstanding and loneliness, who are ultimately set free by the power of friendship, empathy, and sacrifice.

Book Beginnings is at home on Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. I'll also be joining the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

BB:

'I sometimes find myself dreaming.' 1%

This is a very straightforward and yet somehow mysterious opening line. We all dream, don't we? Yet this doesn't seem like the regular kind of dreaming. The prologue is pretty short and seems to se tup some of the narrative without giving too much away. It's definitely whetted my appetite.

F56: 

'Eyes shut tight, she didn't know how to respond, and just gave a firm nod.
The very idea that she didn't need to fight made her whole body feel enveloped in peace.' 56%

Love these lines! I would also be super relieved if I didn't have to fight. I have no idea what's happening here, but I am curious to find out. I do remember, from other Japanese fiction I've read, that the prose is very different, much more straightforward than in Western literature, so I wonder how that translates (ha!) in this genre!

BBH:

This week's question was suggested by Billy himself:

Have you ever skipped ahead to read the ending?

No, never. I have felt the temptation, absolutely, but that was only really the excitement of the story working its magic. I always want to reach the end, but in the right way, by reading all the page sin between. Admittedly I don't always read every page with the same amount of detail, but skipping ahead probably would make the ending feel less impactful to me. So basically that's a long no.

That's it from me this Friday!