Book Review: “Book Girl and the Undine who Bore a Moonflower” by Mizuki Nomura

Warning: If you have not read “Book Girl and the Undine Who Bore a Moonflower” by Mizuki Nomura, avoid reading this review if you do not want spoilers. If you have already read the book or don’t mind spoilers, feel free to read it.

A book review is here in time for the New Year, and this time I’m reviewing “Book Girl and the Undine Who Bore a Moonflower” by Mizuki Nomura! Though this is the sixth book in the series, the author’s note in the back of the book indicates that the events of this book is a side story that takes place after the events of “The Famished Spirit.” The reason this is the sixth book and not the third is because it is supposed to build up to the events of seventh book in the series. Here’s a summary so we know what it’s about:

“I’ve been kidnapped by a bad person. Bring a change of clothes and your homework and come save me!” Duped by this seemingly earnest summons from Tohko, Konoha finds himself forced to spend his summer break at the Himekura villa, writing snacks for his greedy club president. But the shadow of a tragedy from eighty years past threatens to destroy their otherwise peaceful summer! What is the “secret” that stirs the Book Girl’s imagination?”

What I really liked about the book was that we got a better look at the character of Maki Himekura. Given that we haven’t exactly seen her in books four and five, and was most memorable to me as the person who wants to paint Tohko’s nude portrait (I’m not kidding, Maki actually wants to do this), it was interesting to have a better look of her as a character and have her develop more throughout the events of the book.

Ryuto from the second book also makes an appearance by around halfway through the book and it’s fair to say that he hasn’t changed much…at first. He does have some development later on, however. He and Maki also frequently discuss the now-deceased Hotaru Amemiya, who was an important character in the events of “Famished Spirit” and was heavily involved with both Ryuto and Maki. It was interesting to see how both Ryuto and Maki were dealing with the aftermath of the “Famished Spirit” and Hotaru’s death as well.

As for Konoha and Tohko, it was fun to read their varied interactions with each other. It was good to see them interact with each other in ways other than Tohko complaining about Konoha’s stories that he writes for her or the two investigating the main mystery of the book. Of course, both of these things took place in the book, as expected, but there were times where the two just got to have free time to do other things together, and I think that was nice to see because it gave them both more opportunities to further develop individually as well as the closeness of their friendship with each other.

Plotwise, I felt that the book was definitely fun to read. It had me trying to guess the whole story behind the murders that took place at the villa they were staying at long ago, and yet I was still so surprised by what truly happened when the big reveal about the whole mystery happened. The sideplots of Konoha and Tohko interacting more with each other as well as Ryuto and Maki discussing the events of the “Famished Spirit” were also fun to read as well.

Overall, I’m rating this book 5 out of 5 stars!

I look forward to reading the next book in the series, and would definitely suggested at least reading up to “The Famished Spirit” before reading this one to get the full context of the events in the book.