Title: Origami Girl

Author: Tensukishi

Genre: Romance

Quick Summary: A slice of life into the look of Japanese high school... I think?

Thoughts:

This is the first book I threw the towel in for... but not exactly because of quality.

The writing is alright, but there are instances when the style is a bit... stiff. While this didn't totally destroy my enjoyment, it didn't make this book stand out to me in the slightest. To add, there were several instances in which several sentences in a row started with "I". "I did this thing. I then did this. I did this". There was also a lot of filtering of things - "I saw", "I felt", "I heard" - and a lot of telling things. I distinctly remember a couple of instances where "she looked shocked/sad/happy" was mentioned where it would've had more impact to have been shown these things.

The biggest problem with this book - and the reason I threw in the towel - is because it's so long. And not in a good way. Akira goes over just about everything that happens. Everything. Getting ready for school. Most of the classes. Going to school. A lot of this could've been cut out, and the fact that it wasn't made this book incredibly difficult and frustrating to read. I have to wade through 90% mundanities to get to 10% of the actual story.

Which... leads to the next problem. I'm not entirely sure what the plot is yet. I've read five chapters and I have... an inkling of an idea but not a fully-fledged idea. This isn't good. I should have an understanding of what the plot is by now. I don't. This could be slice of life, I guess, but what's the whole shtick here? What am I reading for? There should at least be something in the summary - and while I'm not one to harp on summaries in general, an excerpt... really isn't a summary. So really, I'm walking into this entire book blind.

The dialogue is a bit too loose. While sometimes it's good to have awkward pauses and "erms" and "uhs" and "ahs" for a sense of realness, there are... quite a lot in Origami Girl, to a distracting degree. I would suggest limiting these more, as well as all the ellipses. And otherwise in dialogue, like much everything else, just about everything gets covered. A common tip for dialogue is "start late and end early", meaning skip the awkward "hellos" and "how are yous" and get right to the point, and then end it before everyone overstays their welcome.

I don't know what purpose the prologue serves. From what it looks like, neither Nana nor the boy are characters [or at least, prominent characters] to Origami Girl... Perhaps they show up later, but still. Right now, the motorbike crash and the rest of the book seem like isolated events. 

In terms of positive, Akira is good at setting scenes for the readers. I have distinctive pictures in my head of what everything looks and smells and sounds like, which is good. It's nice to read stories set in other countries for a change, and it's even better when the setting is so damn visceral. 

Another good factor of this is, when they weren't filtered with excess verbiage, the emotions were also on point. The awkwardness a lot of people experienced, for example, was tangible and realistic. With less filter words and also less telling, these same emotions could have had a hundred times more impact. 

I think I might keep going with this book, but at a really slow pace. I'm intrigued to see the outcome, definitely.