Book Review Of 'TAMAYA' By Mitsuki Midori 

The book ‘TAMAYA’ is inspired by a song made by Chinozo. The author uses the lyrics in the song and creates a story about the character in the song. This is the second Japanese novel that I read. The story is somehow both interesting and mysterious, an interesting story with mysterious characters. The story starts by introducing the daily life of the main character, Okawa Yuuki, a person who always wanted to be ‘special’ since he was a child. However, the reality is crueler than he thought, he soon finds out that he is not good at anything. Also, he only has two friends because he is socially awkward, and always being compared with his brother, a talented person. One day, he met a mysterious boy with a very similar face and name in a shrine and also found out that the mysterious boy was in the opposite situation. He felt bored because he was good at everything, had too many friends, and even had kind parents which Yuuki always wished for. They then decided to exchange identities and live in each other’s house. Living a life Yuuki always wished for, why would he want to exchange identity back in the end? You have to read the whole story to find it out!

I was attracted by the caption of the story when I first saw it. The main character is very similar to me, a person who wants to be ‘special’ but there is nothing that he is good at. After reading it, I’ll rate the book a 4 out of 5. I strongly feel that Yuuki’s thoughts and feelings are very relatable. It made me feel that I’m not the only one who is depressed about not having a talent. The book explores the theme of self-confidence. My favorite phrase in the book is ‘You know what, people who think they are not good at anything, are just people who haven’t found out what they are good at. On the other hand, people who know what they are good at, are just people who found out what they are good at earlier than those who haven’t. This is the only difference between people who are talented and people who aren’t.’ This phrase encouraged the main character of the story, Yuuki to be more confident and not to give up on finding what he is good at. The phrase also encouraged me to try new things. If you are also the one who hasn’t found your talent, it is time for you to take action. I can’t say that you must find it but doing something is better than doing nothing. 

The book is interesting and encouraging but sometimes there are unexplainable and unreasonable scenes in the story, which made me feel confused sometimes. For example, there is a scene where Yuuki’s grandfather is sick but later, he meets another healthy grandfather, which makes me feel confused. The author did explain why at the end of the story, but it is too magical for the story as the story is very realistic most of the time. I think this is the only thing that I didn’t like about the book but I think I am still going to recommend this book to everyone.