I always struggle to rank novellas due to the limited length, it can feel hard to form an attachment to the story when you can finish it in under 2 hours. It's difficult for your mind to really be immersed, yet I think Ms Ice Sandwhich does a pretty great job.

I'm growing to really enjoy Mieko Kawakami as an author, of course I've only read two of her stories so far, but I'm incredibly keen to read more from her. She has a knack for showcasing hard to describe emotions often associated with youth; that sort of bitter-sweet hopeful melancholy mixed with confusion that we all experience heavily during our formative years. It's hard to pinpoint how she does it, but she does. You really feel attached to these characters, I think perhaps because there's a sort of nostalgic element to how they're portrayed. So far reading Kawakami's books has felt like I'm reminiscing on old memories and I love that.


I think in the end 'Ms Ice Sandwhich' is about two different things: Trying to comprehend the adult world from a child's perspective, and learning to deal with loss, and honestly the last 20 or so pages of this novella were picture perfect, it made me want to come back and reread it all as soon as possible. I think I'm only giving it a slightly low score purely so I can read it again and rank it higher.