The translation is professional level quality and seems to have been well edited.

This isn't a light novel filled with pages of dialogue. It's a generally well paced novel with dialogue, exposition, and action scenes (such as they are) never usually taking over for large sections (though other reviewers felt differently). This isn't great literature and won't be for everyone, but it isn't your average light novel tr*sh (no judgments -- I read lots of light novel tr*sh!). There was obviously some amount of writing craft involved here. It's not the... more>> kind of novel you'd expect an author to be able to write every three months for years at a time.

The one issue in this author's novels tends to be the mystery elements. Generally the breadcrumbs and foreshadowing are poorly done, and you get lots of explanation at the end which is quite typical of mediocre mystery novels (the early Zaregoto novels comes to mind here).

If you like melodrama/romance and don't mind when mystery elements are somewhat poorly executed, you'll likely enjoy this novel.

Also, just to repeat, the translation is top notch. You couldn't pay someone to translate this better. <<less

Not a bad story by any mean, at most it would be irritating some point along the way. But when comparing this with his other work like "3 days of happiness", it's just not good enough. The author digs deep into a person mind like always but the story is missing something, might be because the main character has his way too easy. The entire story is just a roundabout way of telling something which for some people after finished it might feel unaccomplished. The drama and suffering is there... more>> but it feels way too soft and childish, it's like something teenage girls would fuss about. Of course taking into account they are still teenagers it makes sense but it just makes the story less enjoyable. Anyhow, 3.5/5 overall, if I haven't read "3 days of happiness" before this one might make it a 4. <<less

I liked the overall story and enjoyed the ending. Only a few small issues in my mind.

Some of the drama/backstory seems a little contrived. It wasn't bad enough that I was annoyed by it, it just seemed overplayed a tiny bit when thinking back on it at the end.

Other than that, the flashback scenes tend to get dragged out and feel somewhat irrelevant. I tended to skip them toward the later chapters.

This is my second review on this site I'm still not confident but I'll try my best to give a decent review.

First off- If you're looking for fluff and sugar in this, then you're at the wrong place.

This has a supernatural tag so don't expect everything to make sense. This is kinda of a slow burn but I loved it. It's short, well written, good storytelling. The ending was good but I felt like it was too convenient.

Alright, soo that's it. Before I go I have any advice to those... more>> who dislike

Spoiler

Love triangle/unrequited love.. Just bare with it. And in the end you'll be rewarded. I you feel suffocated then, you can drop it. As for me, I disliked it but it was not annoying in the slightest

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{minor "mini" spoilers} <<less

To preface this, I finished 3 Days of Happiness, Your Story, and Starting Over before I read this.

The Place You/I Called From is by no means a bad story, though I think compare to the other ones from the same author it feels weaker. The 1st person view point that he prefers is present here but because there are so many diverging topics it feels a lot less focused. It feels like how I tell a story to a friend with a lot of tangent constantly. While I think as... more>> a reader I appreciate the backgrounds being filled along the way it just feels less structured. As with all of his works I've read so far, there is a supernatural element but unlike the other ones this is perhaps the most "out there" and at the end it feels too convenient how it achieves the ending. I don't know if the translator's choice of translating a conversation about a "Deus Ex Machina" maybe can resolve the protagonist's issue being the term it was used in Japanese, but the way the ending comes about feels very much like that. The characters I feels are still strong and likeable, and the I guess for once the ending is unambiguously a positive ending maybe made the story a bit less bitter sweet than some of his other works.

3.5/5 is probably where I'd put this. <<less

Did a good job in leaving sufficient breadcrumbs, to keep me interested enough to read it through to the end, but that's about it. Whilst reading this short novel, it was pretty difficult to tell what kind of story it was going for. Mostly it just felt like a "be content with your body" PSA / thought experiment, within a morbid romance.

To be honest, that was good. Coming from the author who made "3 days of Happiness". This is more of an occultic story than his previous work. And I really like the flaws of the characters in the story it's what makes them more human. The pacing can be sometimes melodramatic. But it's pretty good actually in my opinion and because I finished this in one sitting.

Well, I'll looking forward to the author's new work in the future!

The descriptions of their activities made it feel like I was watching them closely, and not just some random activity brushing by. I experienced their emotions as if they were my own, the anxiety, excitement, nervousness etc.

Wonderful story in my opinion. Be there plot holes, unrealistic situation or whatever critics would say, this story touched me and that's all it requires for me to give it 5 stars. Stories are meant to connect the writer's mind with the reader's heart and this is one successful example.

tl;dr Don't read. Not worth your time.

Oh god, I cannot believe this was written by the same guy who wrote 3 days of happiness.

The pacing is out-of-whack, the foreshadowing is terrible, the characters have flip-flopping personalities, and the ending is a cop-out.

... more>> And the asspulls. Oh, the asspulls.

Plus, the worldbuilding. The supernatural element in 3 days of happiness feels natural, as if it existed for a long time. This one's supernatural element was so contrived just to give the novel more feels.

Terrible. Just terrible.

And it had a good start too...

The only thing noteworthy was the high quality translations. Such a shame that effort was wasted on this tier-1 novel. <<less