Today, I started Brave Story which I have been half eagerly anticipating and half dreading. The anticipating stuff is obvious – I remember really enjoying this when I read it and I just finished The Gate of Sorrows (review… will be posted soon) and I loved that too.

The dread part, though, is another matter. I managed to finish the first part of the story, which gets our protagonist Wataru into the world of Vision. It’s really well-written and you completely understand why Wataru would want to escape from his normal reality but…

It’s also really hard to read.

Wataru is a pretty normal kid whose life has basically been destroyed when his father chooses to walk out of the family (framing it as the only rational choice) to be with his mistress. His mother, who spent twenty years adoring her husband, breaks down and refuses to grant the divorce. It’s a mess and my heart broke (still breaks?) for Wataru because it is not easy to be caught in the middle of it all. No wonder he wants to escape to Vision.

Now that the hardest part of the book is over, I’m looking forward to reading more about Wataru’s adventures in Vision!