REVIEW: Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Book #53 of 2025, done!
📖 BOOK: Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
🎧 FORMAT: Audiobook via Prince William County Library (Libby App)
📚 GENRE: Literary Fiction/Magical Realism
📅 RELEASED: 2024 (English translation)
⏱️ AUDIOBOOK LENGTH: 5 hours, 40 minutes (listened at 1.6x)
⭐ RATING: ★★★★☆ (4 out of 5 stars)
👉 PURCHASE: Via this link
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🧳 SYNOPSIS:
In a quiet Tokyo café, time travel is possible…but only in small, tender doses. The latest installment in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series returns us to the familiar chairs, familiar ghosts, and familiar longings. This time, the focus is kindness…how it's given, how it's withheld, and how it might be remembered just in time.
💬 THE VIBE:
Gentle, melancholic, hopeful. Like a warm drink with a lump in your throat. Bittersweet magic for soft hearts.
💡 STANDOUT ELEMENTS:
The way the café setting remains constant while emotions evolve
Interwoven stories that build off one another in such a gentle way
A reflection on the power of small kindnesses and the ripple effect they leave behind
🧠 WHAT STUCK:
That familiar ache of wanting one more moment
How kindness isn’t always loud…sometimes it’s delayed, and quiet
The continued beauty of this series in keeping magic grounded in real emotion
👎 WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:
If you’ve read the others, some beats feel familiar
The emotional pacing is slow. Not boring, just soft and deliberate (which may not be for everyone)
You do need to be in the right mood for this one. I fully believe that you need to be in certain moods for certain books. This is one of them
🤔 IF YOU LIKE:
Thoughtful, reflective stories about love, loss, and human connection
The Before the Coffee Gets Cold series (obviously)
Books that gently break your heart and then tuck it back in with a blanket
🙅♀️ IF YOU DON’T LIKE:
Magical realism rooted in conversation
Books that sit more with emotion than action
Good books…LOL
📝 FINAL VERDICT:
4 stars.
This series always sneaks up on me. It’s gentle and repetitive in a comforting way, but Before We Forget Kindness had moments that truly landed…quiet little stabs of emotional clarity. If you’ve been with the café this long, this cup is worth finishing.
Series Note: If you have not read the other 4 books prior to this in the series, I highly recommend it. While it is not necessary I do feel they build on each other as far as the background elements and how the traveling occurs.
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