By Aisha Y., Glen Burnie High School
Seiko Tanabe’s Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish is a romance-filled light novel. I had watched the drama/film before stumbling across the book at my local library. My extremely positive experience with the movie that I deemed as great led me to check out the book. I was not disappointed with this decision. Though at times a bit explicit, Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish conveys tender romance in a way that evokes lasting emotions and warm feelings. The characters felt real and genuine– between Josee, the main character, being wheelchair-bound and all the other characters dealing with authentic, heartfelt, substantive real-world problems, it’s hard not to find yourself relating to the plethora of complex protagonists and characters. Parts of the story made me laugh a lot, some of them also made me really emotional, and some of them made me shut the book and sit there with my mouth agape. It’s important to note that the book does include a peripheral amount of explicit content. Fortunately, this content does not take away from the story. I wouldn’t necessarily say this book is a general audience novel, but, for anyone over the age of 13, I think it’s a wonderful book that depicts certain themes of romance in a splendid, multifaceted way. I recommend this book to all the hopeless romantics and lovers of the romance-genre. Tanabe did a wonderful job with this tender, heartfelt, sweet romance.
Click here to check out Josee, the Tiger and the Fish by Seiko Tanabe