Words to describe Bloom into You: Slow-burn, tender, sweet.

Yuu has always wanted to fall in love and to feel like a character in the shoujo manga she reads, but when a boy asks her out, she feels nothing. When she overhears an upperclassman, Nanami, gracefully turn down another boy's declaration, Yuu is impressed. That's hardly surprising, since Nanami is impressive in many ways: popular, intelligent, and involved in student life, she is pretty much perfect. The real shock arrives when Nanami declares that she thinks she is falling in love with Yuu, and asks her not to reciprocate these feelings.

I'm on the third volume of the series now, and what I like about it so far is the way it subverts my expectations. As Nanami and Yuu spend more time together, cracks appear in Nanami's facade of perfection, revealing more vulnerability than she shows to anyone but Yuu. And for her part, Yuu is more complicated than I expected. She grapples with her desire to feel love and her ambivalence when faced with the possibility of doing so. Remembering my high school experiences, I can relate to this conflict.

I also like the secondary characters--especially Koyomi, the bookish aspiring novelist who hates all cute things except the sea creature stuffies she collects; and Maki, whose interest in romance only extends to watching the lovelorn trials and tribulations of his friends. I hope that as the series progresses, they and other characters get their own subplots.

Listening to this while at work was an occasionally demoralizing choice on my part, but don't let that dissuade you from reading it. Graeber describes types of bullshit jobs (read: jobs that contribute no value to society [or actively cause harm] while being perceived as such by the workers who perform them), examines how pointless labor and "hard work" became values held under capitalism, and briefly theorizes an antidote (spoiler: UBI). Didn't change my mind about anything, but it did provide me with a book I can shove at people if I want to change their minds, maybe.

Slice-of-life series truly are my favorites. I love getting to know a cast of characters through their daily routines and small, often mundane interactions with one another. Maybe it's because series like this, with their gentle pace, are soothing to me, or maybe I just like the idea that the stuff of regular people's lives is meaningful.

In this volume, we get more of Sayaka, a character whose yearning and decision to suppress her own emotions I find relatable. Her conversation with the barista reminded me of my own resolve not to "burden" my girlfriend with confessions of my feelings for her back when we were just friends. Well, we've been together for almost six months now, so perhaps something good is in store for Sayaka, too.

Yuu continues to be an interesting character. Although it's not confirmed where I am in the series--and I'm unsure if it ever becomes canon--she reads as aromantic. In this volume, she has a nice moment of connection with Maki (who appears to be aromantic and asexual) which leaves them both feeling a bit less isolated, even though their experiences are not identical. I'm interested to see how this influences Yuu's relationship(?) with Nanami, who clearly wants more of a physical connection, even if she doesn't expect Yuu to reciprocate her love.