Brave Story

I would put this book in that “fairy tales for people old enough to understand what fairy tales are about” category. It's a little over-the-top on its symbolism but also pretty heart-wrenchingly poignant when you get to the core: a boy trying to deal with the adults in his life revealing they are also mistake-making humans. That he does this through building and exploring an entire video game-esque alternate reality just means that this story would make an amazing Studio Ghibli animated feature.

It was a little hard to get into which might have something to do with the translation (Japanese is really awkward directly translated to English and the balance isn't always perfect) and might just be part of that slow-burn storytelling culture. It was probably 3 hundred pages before I felt really involved, but Wataru and Mitsuru were interesting enough to keep me going. The human characters are remarkably realistic and balanced, and both maintain a sense of righteousness even when making terrible mistakes.

That said, the characters of Vision are all really flat and occasionally annoying. In Vision, everyone is either really really good or really really bad, with the exception of the people who are reflections of the real world characters. I guess it makes sense given that vision is built by Wataru and Mitsuru who are really just creating their NPC cast, but the tireless optimism of our heroes allies gets a little annoying, especially filtered through translation.

The heart of the story is so very close to my own though, that I ended up loving the book anyway. Emotional honesty is an extremely difficult concept to grasp, especially for children, and I think we need more stories geared towards them with flawed heroes and relatable antagonists. We need our future to know that feelings, even dark and depressing ones, even ones your parents obviously wish you didn't feel, are valid and are a part of you. No one should be coping with a crisis by smiling and pretending it isn't happening. It took me a long time to learn this, and honestly, I'm still not all the way there, but books like this are good affirmatives in that direction.

It's hard for me to put an age range on this because I think I would have loved it as a kid and glossed over the real world bits that might get a little too real for some. Also, reading a book as thick as this one would've made me feel very grown-up. However, it's definitely going to require a bit of reading stamina to get to the action and adventure, so know that before giving it to your kids. Maybe read it with them. For adults, it's going to be more challenging getting through the stock hero's journey sections to see if that core resonates. I think it will for most people.

This story (translated from the Japanese) is like two stories mashed together. It begins in the real world with a young boy (age 11) named Wataru. There's some strange goings-on in a half-built house in his neighborhood (and it's pretty interesting). But then that bit gets overshadowed by Wataru's disintegrating family. Wataru wants to fix things and thinks he'll get a chance by fulfilling a mission into another world called Vision. Brave Story is fat, heavy, 800-page book and Wataru's entrance into Vision happens around page 220. Unfortunately, this is where things begin to bog down. I was non-plussed to realize that Vision was modeled after a Role Playing Game (RPG), something Wataru himself is crazy about. But I kept going. Somewhat interesting developments become less interesting. By page 380 I was completely bored with the story. I was bummed that I'd invested so much time into this story but after reading some of the less favorable comments from customers on Amazon, I now have Serious Doubts that persevering will pay off. So I'm not.