The Haunted Bookstore - Gateway to a Parallel Universe (Light Novel), Vol. 1 - The Spirit Daughter and the Exorcist Son

Mystery in the Spirit Realm

Kaori lives in an otherworldly bookstore with her adoptive father. Together, they provide books to the strange denizens of the spirit realm. But Kaori's peaceful days come to an end when she rescues an injured boy from the streets--a human, like her, from the mortal realm. The boy's name is Suimei, and he's an exorcist, the natural enemy of all spirits. Can Kaori convince Suimei that the line between human and spirit is far hazier than he thinks? A touching supernatural tale where humanity and Japanese folklore intertwine!

©2019 Shinobumaru (P)2019 Shinobumaru

Not Bad and Fairly Sweet

This felt very much like a Studio Ghibli film. It had many of the same qualities like having spirits and monsters from Japanese folklore and a young-ish girl living amongst them. It takes a lot of time painting a picture of the MC's world and feels like a slice-of-life book, so don't expect much plot movement until the later part of the book, where there is a little action and plenty of emotional moments.

Overall, I thought it was sweet and enjoyable. I did feel like it was lacking a bit of impact, however. I found myself getting a little bored at times, but perhaps that is because this is obviously aimed towards a young audience. Even the young adult characters in the book act way younger than their stated ages, although some of this has to do with their upbringings.

The narrator was ok but maybe a little lackluster, which did not help my lack of enthusiasm for the story at some points. I think a better narrator could have really sold the book better, but this one was serviceable.

If you want a fairly relaxing and cute story, I'd say give this a try. I have a feeling that now that the world is established in this book, the following ones will have more action.

Falls short

Confusing and Hard to follow the story and to distinguish the different characters and just wasn’t my cup of tea