All that Glitters is not Gold: Reviews by jonbrain

Espresso Love, by TAKATSU

How to describe this novel?

Where to even begin?

Espresso Love is something completely unique. Have you ever read 1984? How about A Wrinkle in Time? Have you seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Well, if you have the great fortune to know all three, combine them together in your mind. Add a dash of The Matrix and you have the ingredients for Espresso Love. But don't just toss them together like a salad, or bake it like a casserole. It must be formed with the utmost care, each ingredient in perfect proportion to the other, no flavor overpowering the other, each adding to the dish as a whole. Don't boil it too much; don't under cook it. You cannot recreate a Japanese art form without intimate care to each detail, meticulous, loving attention to the entire work. You cannot prepackage or mass produce real sushi. You can't prepackage hot coffee. Such things must be prepared by a master.

When I started reading on Wattpad, I never expected to find a book that really held a candle to published fiction. But in Espresso Love, I did.

When I came to Wattpad, I never expected to find a book I loved and admired. But in Espresso Love, I did.

When I came to Wattpad, I never expected to find a masterpiece.

But, ladies and gentlemen, I have.

This book is everything advertised. It is a story of love in a world that knows nothing but the endless grind of the machine. It is a story that excites the imagination, that challenges the mind, that invigorates the soul. It was a heartbreak, it was a song, it was a dream that you never want to wake from. It speaks to the very heart of a nation and a world that lives by the clock and the image of the perfect world that Instagram and Facebook feed our awaiting mouths. And it calls to them, asks them to be free, to wake from the silence, the Image, that awaits them down that path.

You see, there is a world that is beyond the scope of the waking mind. Consciousness is not simply contained by the frail shell of the body. It's called the Collective. Some people are called espres, who have the latent image of the Collective within them. Such is Kaneko Shizuka (surname first), the mysterious, perplexing, mystical girl with a signature order: tall caramel chai tea latte, soy, 120 degrees, extra whip. Remember this order, she says; it may be important.

The world has other forces within it as well. You see, there is a system to this world, a system that requires no connection to the Collective, a system of nothingness built only out of the mathematical etiquette that binds this near-future Japanese society together. Such are the servants of the Cause. System is Everything. Never break etiquette.

The system grinds all under its weight. The system destroys individuality and free will; eventually, if you are left under its thumb for too long, you lose yourself to the system. You become an Image, the empty shell of a person, a mysterious hunter dressed in black suits, a complete servant of the system.

But there are those who, for a while, can retain their individuality, the greater part of themselves. Such is Maeda Naoki, an Anomaly. An abnormal one in many ways; he is a literature student, a budding philosopher, an unwitting participant in the system, a follower of etiquette.

Until he meets Shizuka.

What follows is perhaps the most compelling story of love in the face of mortal danger that I have ever read. In a world where simply the act of falling in love defies the fabric of reality, where following your heart is disorderly and destructive to the system, this couple defies the world. Shizuka is desperate to save Naoki through whatever means necessary, for she knows that given half a chance the forces beyond either of their imagination will destroy them both in a way that no one can truly comprehend.