A review by megsbookishtwins
The Last Leaves Falling by Fox Benwell

2.0

I received this free from the publishers via NetGalley

Sora has been diagnosed with ALS. He is scared and lonely and doesn't like leaving his room. He is ashamed of his illness and he fears death. For comfort, he turns to the wisdom of the Samurai. Through the internet he finds friends who don't see him as just his illness.

Looking through the reviews and ratings so far, it seems as though I am in a minority with my opinion on The Last Leaves Falling. It was an okay and interesting read, yet I was not as emotionally invested in it as I thought I would be, hence the three star rating. There were a couple of positives of The Last Leaves Falling. One was that it was set in Japan, and I liked that I got to read a book in a different setting that wasn't the USA, and secondly I liked that the narration was of someone who had ALS. That is something I've never read before and that is definitely a positive of this book and does give this book a lot of originality.

The Last Leaves Falling was a very character driven novel, perhaps that is why I didn't like it as much. I'm not sure. I felt it really hard to connect with Sora, and while I was devastated with what he was going through, I still could not connect with him or understand him.

One thing I didn't really like was the chat conversations. I don't know why, but they were just not interesting to me much, and I felt like the friendships he created with the other people was very rushed and sort of forced and unrealistic I guess? They had a few conversations and were agreeing to meet for dinner? I mean, it just doesn't seem like something you would do, meet up with strangers on the internet so soon.

Anyway, I was sadly disappointed with this one and felt little connection with any of the characters, although I did like Sora's relationship with his Mum. Like I said, I seem to be in a minority when it comes to this book, so it would probably be best to read some other reviews and I'm still a bit on the fence about The Last Leaves Falling.