I remember enjoying What You're Looking For is in The Library so I was excited to dive into this!

Overall, this book felt really young. Not even just because 50% of our protagonists were school-age kids. The problems were largely self-inflicted and easily resolved by a little self-awareness or a conversation so I struggled to get invested in, what felt like, very low stakes conflict.
I did like the interconnectedness of the characters and, while the hippo fell a bit flat for me, I appreciated the connection the characters all had through the apartment and the dry cleaners.

The translation was solid, if a little stilted at times. The storytelling was heavy on exposition, which worked in places but I'm not sure the characters had distinct enough voices to stick the landing. The 'Get it?! Because kaba-hiko rhymes with hippo' was repeated in every chapters (twice in the last one). Maybe it was lost in translation but I didn't find this funny the first time, it was downright grating by the fifth.

While at least no one was conversing with the dead in this story, I'd love to see a fresh take on healing fiction. Between What You're Looking For is in the Library, the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, the Food Detectives series, and the Go-Between series, these stories are all starting to feel the same... and getting a bit stale as a result!

I didn't regret the time I spent with this book but I didn't love it either. . Its huge print and short page count make it a quick read for a quiet afternoon; but, I think it was a bit too young and simplistic to stand out as a new favourite.