When Haru Was Here
From the New York Times bestselling author Dustin Thao, We Are Okay meets Wandavision in this novel about loss, and learning to let go.
After the death of his best friend, Eric Ly creates imaginary scenarios in his head to deal with his grief. Until one of them becomes real when a boy he met last summer in Japan finds his way back into his life. When he least expects it, Haru Tanaka walks into the coffee shop and sits down next to him. The only thing is, nobody else can see him.
In a magical turn of events, Eric suddenly has someone to connect with, making him feel less alone in the world. But as they spend more and more time together, he begins to question what is real. When he starts losing control of the very thing that is holding him together, Eric must finally confront his reality. Even if it means losing Haru forever.
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Community Reviews
By no means is this a story that made me cry or sad. In fact, it just infuriated me for several reasons.
1. Were never given insight into who Daniel really is which makes his passing feel lackluster and truly weightless to the story.
2. Anytime a man looks at Eric he becomes interested which just completely rids the reader of more of the “sadness” we’re supposed to feel about him passing feel like nothing.
3. What Eric is experiencing is literally a giant mental health issue, and his blatant ignorance of it and willingness to dive deeper into it is super frustrating.
I don’t feel anything for these characters. I don’t feel any of this sadness I was told I was going to feel. I’m leaving this book wondering where depth of character is. It truly feels like Eric, and those around him aren’t fully fleshed out yet. A surface level story. Just truly not worth the time unfortunately.
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