Be With You

Be With You by Takuji Ichikawa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

SPOILERS ABOUND! BEWARE!

A gentle, thoughtful story that explores love and loss.

This book did NOT end the way I expected! I figured that ghost-Mio was probably not a shared hallucination, but I've read enough magical realism to immerse myself in the idea that ghost-Mio was able to come back for a short time to help Takkun and Yuji move on and regain some semblance of normal life again. Yuji was able to let go of some of his pain over feeling responsible for his mother's death, and Takkun was able to fall in love with his wife one more time, even while knowing she had to leave again.

And then! We find out that actually Ghost-Mio had come from the past and was Timetravelling-Mio! Love how open she was while getting to know Takkun and her son again, even though she had no memories of them. You could see how much she was falling in love with them and their life, and wanted Takkun to look at her and see HER, the woman returned (or so they thought), and not the memory of his dead wife. I think by the end of their 6 weeks, he really did see her for who she really was.

I really loved her letter, and how in the end, it wasn't just loving him that determined her fate, even though she did love him deeply, but it was also her choice. She chose to enter that life and bring Yuji in the world and everything that came with it, even knowing she would die, because she'd rather be with them than live longer. And that is what they mean by true love. I could read Mio's letter over and over again, it really is that special. It alone earned one of the stars I give this book.

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