
What a disappointment, and I suspect the problem is largely the translation itself, though I don't rule out that the original work is the source of this.
The first story, and consequently the one that gave this story its title, is The Girl Who Leap Through Time, which inspired the animated movie with the same title. The movie is way better, though it took all its cues from this story, it had better writing and delivery.
Both stories, the second is a horror-like themed story, felt badly fleshed out and immature, quite childish in its delivery really.
Now I don't know if the immaturity, and bad writing are faults of the translator, the writer itself, or both. It's probably both, but as I don't know how to read Japanese (yet), I don't have any way to say it's one way or the other.
Deeply disappointed, I expected a classic. Alas, it was not meant to be.
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I've been antsy to read this since I learned the movie was based on this book, though I've only now geared my courage up to try to tackle it. Plus it's short, I never noticed it was only 100 pages!