The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida

The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida
by Clarissa Goenawan
GOODREADS – AMAZON
Released: 8th October 2020 (UK)
Keywords: Adult, Contemporary, Japan, Suicide, Mystery, LGBTQ+, Sexual assault, Paranormal

Synopsis
“Miwako Sumida is dead.
Now those closest to her try to piece together the fragments of her life. Ryusei, who has always loved her, follows Miwako’s trail to a remote Japanese village. Chie, Miwako’s best friend, was the only person to know her true identity — but is now the time to reveal it? Meanwhile, Fumi, Ryusei’s sister, is harbouring her own haunting secret.
Together, they realise that the young woman they thought they knew had more going on behind her seemingly perfect façade than they could ever have dreamed.”

Review
I recieved an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this book. We start out knowing that Miwako Sumida took her own life and spend the book slowly unraveling what lead to that point through multiple point’s of view. The guy from school that was in love with her, that she could never let herself love back. The best friend that knew her secret identity and deepest secrets. The employer who is trans and has her own special gifts that we get to learn more about towards the end of the book.

It was a very touching and heart warming read laced with plenty of grief and sadness. Through Miwako’s death we see the people closest to her facing themselves and tackling their own lives and figuring out how to move on. It was so interesting and well written how Miwako’s story slowly unfolds through the people closest to her.

This book obviously does tackle many serious subjects including suicide, rape, sexual assault, abortion and bullying. It is a book I see myself revisiting in the future even if I did have slight issues with how it ended and I am looking forward to picking up her other book, Rainbirds.

My rating: 4.5/5 stars