Catfish Rolling

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Overall, an enjoyable coming of age story that I would recommend to those who like contemplative, character-driven books. There are themes of grief (and all its stages), growth (as both a young person experiencing trauma and grief), and living in liminal spaces where time moves faster, slower, or normally.

In fact everything changed that fateful day when the catfish who dwells beneath the surface grew restless and needed. And maybe read another review because I have no idea how to explain this book other than to say I loved it. I've been a fan of Japanese fiction for a while now and anything that melds together the love of the natural world with a surreal story is fine with me. When Leto awakes from her death, the enigmatic Melantho reveals her destiny: to kill the last prince of Ithaca and destroy the curse.Her overseas adventure brings great wonder, but Luki soon discovers a darker side, of racism and inequality. It was believed that there was a giant catfish living underground the islands of Japan, and was restrained by a stone. She was just so negative and angry the entire time, and it became impossible for me to connect to her on any level (not even on the being-half-asian-half-white level). I loved how Sora's relationships (with her father, her missing mother, and her guy friend) are messy and complicated.

Her determination to work with her father to uncover the secrets of these scattered time areas, makes her easy to root for. Personally, it was the depiction of grief, and the intersection of grief and time, that resonated with me the most. I found myself feeling pretty confused on the timelines and locations of everything, particularly any flashbacks.

Kumagai nails the narrative on each of these levels in a way that only an incredibly skilful author can.