ok first of all

Spoiler

RIGHT AWAY THE CAT DIES, WHY

anyway uh...this book mainly exists to be like, Gossip Girl style wealth porn but for Japan-lovers, and that's a fine thing for a YA book to be, and indeed I did enjoy the lavish descriptions of fancy Tokyo high rises and sushi chefs and whatnot. The plot......is real flimsy and this is another book where the grownups mostly seem to exist so that you feel bad for how UNFAIR the teens' lives are.

But also the tone is kind of uneven, like from the premise and title I expected it to be mostly the fluffy Tokyo life but there's some p grim side plots that are resolved abruptly?

I think a specific type of teen reader will still be into this but it's like...not great