The main reason why I wouldn’t consider this a great work of fiction is primarily in its writing. More than anything. I found myself lost a lot in the dialogue. It happened so much that there were times I had to read entire chapters again because I missed something important. This was especially prevented in the scene where Kokone was murdered by Mogi. I simply couldn’t understand shit about that whole sequence. I read it two times even. Never have I been this confused about a single scene than that. I really wonder if this is an issue with the translator or if it’s an inherent issue with the book itself.
Looking part all those issues. The reason why I pressed forward even though that is how good the story is. This in all its glory felt like MoL’s little sister. Rather than going around for a month. This went through the same day over and over again. Honestly, I really would have loved to see more world-building. Maria severely lacked it in its story. Only the characters got described. The world was given a second seat. This resulted in me having a really hard time imagining what the world was like. It even made it hard to recreate action like sequences in my mind.
Honestly, I’m angry. The story was great. But it only it would’ve been written better
There were even parts of the story that I related to more than any other book or show I’ve ever watched. For example, take Mugi’s character. Reading here backstory felt like I was reading myself. Like the following;
“How many times had I thought that life was too long as I trudged along by the force of habit? My fingers and toes probably aren’t enough to count the number of times I seriously thought I would be okay with dying.
I was bored. Bored beyond all hope.
I never breathed a word of it to anyone, though, and I kept up the pretence that I was as happy as always. Exposing my true feelings only led to trouble. That’s why I did my best to get along with anyone and everyone, regardless of who they were. It’s not that hard to do. As long you aren’t too picky about your likes and dislikes, what you are and aren’t into, you can be friends with anybody.”
Before reading Maria when please say that they relate to a certain character very much. I honestly felt envious. Cos all my life. I’ve never related to a character personally. I might like who they were. Or I might see a character whom I wish to be like. But never a character that felt like me. That all changed when I read about Mogi. She fit so much into the mould that marks my shape. I was honestly surprised. She’s one of the reason why I’m not calling the novel utter crap too.
I didn’t mind the timeline stuff. I liked that and the mystery it created. It’s the sentence structures and the wording they used. Most of the time, I didn’t understand shit. There were times when I had to reread whole chapters. Even then I couldn’t get the whole picture to pop out in my head. The book really suffers when it comes to worldbuilding. I prefer books where the background of each scene is clearly explained. Here shit happens out of nowhere. Then we change to another place. It’s just too chaotic to keep my mental image of the story intact