Happy April Fools’ Day!! Despite today being a day you can’t trust anything people say, trust me, I’ll not be pulling any pranks on you. *wink* *wink*

Now that I’ve taken all the jokes out of my system – probably not! – time to focus on the book I bring to you today: Edokko by Loren Greene. This is the second full-length novel in the Sakura+Maple series that brings Japan and Canada together. The story is a stand-alone, so don’t worry if you haven’t read anything else. So grab your passport, and let’s go to Japan!

Author: Loren Greene Pages: 332 Genre: Contemporary YA Publication: 2021

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Synopsis:

Lily Jennings is Going. To. Japan.

Sixteen and on top of the world, Lily’s BEYOND excited to be setting off for an entire year as an exchange student in Tokyo. Fashion and fun are foremost on her mind as she arrives ready to meet her new host family and embark on a grand adventure, livestreaming all the way.

What Lily isn’t expecting, however, is for her urban host family to cancel at the last moment and leave her hanging with nowhere to live. She’s shipped off to the small town of Ajimu (sorry, where!?), a billion miles from anywhere cool and exciting, with a neurotic host sister, straight-up-vile classmates and a microscopic community watching over her every move.

Too bad for the people of this small town—nothing’s going to hold Lily back when she wants something!

My review:

Before going in, be advised to have lots of patience set aside to deal with the main character, Lily. She is a piece! Having to read through Lily’s perspective is a challenge. Although I was more interested in “experiencing” Japan through her eyes and was able to gloss over some of her attitudes.

Lily is a shallow spoiled brat. At first, she doesn’t show it. You side with her because the experience she was promised was in Tokyo. But then that plan goes downhill, and she ends up in the middle of nowhere. And I get it. I probably wouldn’t like that last-minute change as well. Although she starts to hate everything. Instead of taking advantage of the opportunity and seeing what it’s like to live in rural Japan, all she focuses on is the fact she is not in Tokyo.

With time, Lily does change, and we get to see deep down, she has a good heart. After putting aside the rebel teen hormones, she is a good girl with her heart in the right place. She had some actions that made me change my opinion of her slightly. And that is the primary goal of the story, to witness Lily’s growth because of the year abroad.

Since the story is character-driven, it develops slowly and, at times, feels like nothing is happening other than following along with the daily life of an exchange student. There are a lot of small moments that work together to develop the relationships between the characters. Also, there is no romance. Despite Lily’s desire, there isn’t any romance. The story focuses only on building friendships.

Knowing from the start this is an adventure of one year, it’s kind of bitter-sweet. For once, I didn’t care Lily had to go back home to Canada. She wasn’t appreciating her time in Japan, so I didn’t care if she went home. But for another, she created good relationships that now she would have to abandon and only be able to keep as long-distance.

Lastly, Edokko is a good book for Japan-lovers. A vision of Japan as an exchange student away from the big touristy cities. As I said, Lily is hard to deal with, but in between her complaints, it’s possible to appreciate the setting.