Haru's Curse by Asuka Konishi

 
Haru's Curse by Asuka Konishi
My Rating: ★★★★

I received a copy from Kodansha Comics through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When Natsumi’s sister dies from cancer, her life loses meaning. Haru was everything to her and now that she’s gone, Natsumi wants nothing more than to join her sister as soon as possible. It’s why she agreed to start dating Haru’s fiancé, Togo. Natsumi wants to visit the places they went together and try to become closer to her sister before she joins her. What she didn’t expect was to develop her own romantic feelings for her sister’s fiancé.

I picked up this book knowing it’d be a sad one, and I was not surprised. Having lost a close family member to cancer not long ago, I completely understood what Natsumi and her family were going through in the present as well as the flashback scenes. It was quite heartbreaking to follow Natsumi as she watched her sister deteriorate and eventually pass away from cancer. The rest of the book is the aftermath where we see that Natsumi has a cheerful personality while being depressed underneath it all. It was interesting seeing her character development as well as her struggles with coming to terms with her feelings for Togo.

The only thing that confused me is that it occasionally seemed like Natsumi and Haru had different biological mothers, but then it’d turn out that wasn’t the case. I’m not sure if that’s a me thing or if that has something to do with the translation of those panels, but it did throw me through a loop the first two times it came up. Otherwise, I quite enjoyed this book and wish there was more, but the open ending makes complete sense.