This book is not only infused with Japanese mythology but also with Japanese culture, which is interesting to discover through the eyes of a part-Occidental character. Sora serves as an entry point to teach us about a culture (and a language) that we’re not familiar with.

Be aware that magical realism is not fantasy: you won’t find in this book a quest to destroy evil or a chosen one with special abilities. Instead, you will linger in the liminal space between worlds, between what’s real and what’s magical – a space full of symbols and metaphors. It might take some getting used to.

In conclusion, this evocative, wandering coming-of-age novel is a quiet and peaceful book – and a stunning object filled with calligraphy.

The scientifical angle of this sci-fi YA is quite interesting - time and its unpredictable changes and behaviour. Time as an entity is a fascinating issue. Here in the novel there are zones where time goes slow or fast...and no one knows why. Some parts of this zones can be used for living, for fun...some are dangerous. And exactly the dangerous zones are where the main heroine Sora is used to go. She is curious...and she is looking for her missing mother here. There are some unexplained issues with her mom being gone. Throw in some Japanese mythology and some environmental topic and you have the material for an exciting YA about scientific issues.
But there is also romantic department and this is where I am disappointed. Sora might not know that she is into the girls (this is questioning/LGBTI+ novel), but her sexual behaviour with her boyfriend is outright risky in its mindlessness and "just because" motive and can be a base for serious heartbreak if doing this in real life.

I feel like there aren't enough stories which explore what it's like to be caught between two cultures due to being dual heritage.
This book does that against a backdrop of magical realism a little like The Cassandra Complex by Holly Smale.
An excellent fantasy that enables us to connect to the real experience of those of us with dual heritage.

Stylish, accomplished and thought-provoking story-telling explores themes of identity, philosophy, science, ecology, life, loss and love. Part thriller, part speculative fiction, this a rewarding, thought-provoking read.

Beginning of this book was interesting,, but then I got lost in all the events and time zones, and it stopped being an unjoyful read.
I struggled to regain my attention after the half of the book.
The book starts with a catastrophe and continues with it's consequences, world is now divided in different time zones and not all of them are safe.

Absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful. Words don’t even begin to describe this stunning novel about love and time.

Based in Japan, this story follows Sora and her father as they try to figure out what happened what the catfish rolled and time changed forever. Fantasy and science come together to create a story that will certainly become a classic.

I love that the main character is a girl, one who is so brave and strong. Sora is a brilliant character that you can help loving and rooting for. Your heart breaks for Sora.

I didn’t expect to love this book as much I have. But I will definitely be rereading it time and time again.

Fantastic read for fans of Studio Ghibli. I loved the journey the character goes on. It’s a beautiful story!

I really wanted to love this book but i just couldn't get in to it. Perhaps I need to try a different medium as sometimes I take in audio better, sometimes ebook, others physical.
I just felt like I was left behind a little and not really following,

A beautiful read! Not something I ordinarily enjoy, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

While technically there are elements of fantasy, sci-fi and magical realism in this novel, it feels like more of a slow, literary exploration of borders, boundaries and intersectionalities, and of time, perception, identity, memory and grief.

There is also an element of coming-of-age to Sora’s journey as she tries to come to terms with her new world and personal loss after a national tragedy that has changed Japanese society and day-to-day life. It is a very whimsical, fantastical reflection of real-life tragedies – tsunamis, earthquakes or floods.

Not a lot of action happens in the story, as the focus is on the character development and how Sora comes to terms (or refuses to come to terms) with the nature of time and, somewhat ironically, the resulting pace of the story is quite slow and meandering, but Clara Kumagai’s writing is beautiful and her philosophical exploration of our relationships with time, each other and ourselves is both thoughtful and thought-provoking.

This is one for the deep thinkers that have time to delve in to the concepts and really get to grips with the ideas presented.

It is not often that I struggle to get into a book but I did with Catfish Rolling possibly as I didn't feel as though I knew the main character Sora particularly well and therefore struggled to become connected and some of the time jumps made the story disjointed for me. However I am so pleased that I persevered with it as this story is a beautiful blend of Japanese myth and magic and so becomes a creative exploration of grief, love and acceptance.

Catfish Rolling is a well-written story and I know that many other readers absolutely love it. I will be interested in future publications from Clara Kumagai.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zephyr for allowing me to read this in advance in exchange for an honest review.

This is a Young Adult, Magical Realism book. It appealed to me because there are a number of Japanese authors and books that I have found recently, which I have enjoyed and this, whilst it is a different genre to those I would normally choose was equally enjoyable.

It is a story about displaced people and how they find their way to feel as though they belong. It is about friendships, old and new. The plot is complex and does answer all the questions at the end.

Time stands still.
Fascinating read, is it sci-fi or could it be true?
An earthquake separated Sora from her Mother, her Father saved her but becomes obsessed with the time shift the earthquake causes.
Sora is the child of an American father and a Japanese mother, she never quite fits in at school as her cultural background is at odds with her surroundings. I was not sure what gender Sora was at first, but her friend Koki and her form an attachment until he goes away to university. Sora often visits the forbidden zones where time is either speeded up or slowed down, this concept is well described and the dangers it poses, are the shadows people who still inhabit the zones?
Her Father is also involved with time in the zones, his job and investigations into time seem to change him leading to a type of breakdown and disappearance, Sora goes to see Koki and meets his tutor Naomi who helps her. A student Maya comes to Soras assistance, they are mutually attracted to one anothet
A very involving novel illustrating love and miss through the eyes of a young girl.
Thank you Clara and NetGalley.

This was such an interesting read! I found myself so engrossed in the story, the characters had such incredible arcs, and I can't wait to follow this author's journey!

There is a catfish sleeping under Japan, and when it rolls the country shakes. A few years ago the catfish rolled and caused a huge shake, but afterwards some very strange things began happening to time. In some areas of the country time moves more slowly, in others it moves faster, but everyone who was in these zones when the shake happened has disappeared without a trace.
Sora’s mother was one of the people who disappeared in the quake, and she’s been searching for her ever since. Her father has made a career of studying the time shifts, but when he too disappears, Sora has no choice but to venture further into the zones than ever before in an attempt to find him.

I absolutely loved the magical realism of Catfish Rolling. The way that myth was wound into reality and fantasy was intriguing, and the dynamic of the time warps and how they would impact society was really interesting to see.

Seeing Sora discover herself and how far she’ll go for her family and what she had lost was heartbreaking, but the overall story was hopeful and the ending was different than I expected - which I enjoyed.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Catfish Rolling and would read more books from this author in the future.

I received the e-ARC book from Netgally in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely powerful debut novel from Clara Kumagai. Love the idea of the “time zones” created after a devastating earthquake hitting Japan, and how the actual Japanese mythology gets woven amongst a new concept of slow and fast time, just how some people might experience grief. As the air gets thicker is gets harder to breath and the longer you stay there the fastest you might lose yourself.

It’s a slow paced character driven book so it might not pack a punch for a lot of people as many things are thrown into a story that might never get resolve. As we follow Sora (half Japanese half Canadian) and her Dad (Canadian) in the search through the “zones” we discover what brought them there and what keeps them there. Their family dynamic and their shared grief, looking after each other and the loneliness of their own individual lives.

My favourite parts of the book are the interactions between Sora as a child and her mother before the earthquake took her away. The tenderness, Japanese mum wisdom and quirks made the book for me.

Loved also her constant search for her own identity, and constant growing up given her dad’s speedy aging and I’ll health. It made me think a lot of studio Ghibli’s female protagonist. Not your traditional coming of age story, not your traditional road trip adventure.

An absolute delight of a book

Highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley, Zephyr and the author for the opportunity to read this ARC in return for an honest review.

I read that this was one of the most anticipated books of 2023 and where normally I am a good few years behind the trend, I saw this available on netgalley and so picked to try it without even looking and what it was about. Dangerous but worthwhile because this was such a different and original story.

"A dazzling debut. Magic-realism blends with Japanese myth and legend in an original story about grief, memory, time and an earthquake that shook a nation. There's a catfish under the islands of Japan and when it rolls the land rises and falls. Sora hates the catfish whose rolling caused an earthquake so powerful it cracked time itself. It destroyed her home and took her mother. Now Sora and her scientist father live close to the zones - the wild and abandoned places where time runs faster or slower than normal. Sora is sensitive to the shifts, and her father recruits her help in exploring these liminal spaces. But it's dangerous there - and as she strays further inside in search of her mother, she finds that time distorts, memories fracture and shadows, a glimmer of things not entirely human, linger. After Sora's father goes missing, she has no choice but to venture into uncharted spaces within the time zones to find him, her mother and perhaps even the catfish itself... Stylish, accomplished and thought-provoking story-telling explores themes of identity, philosophy, science, ecology, life, loss and love."

I have really started to enjoy books linked in with Japanese Myth and the merge between magic and realism fits really nicely. This book covers some big issues include loss, grief and LGBTQ+ in a young-adult coming-of-age story. The writing flows and ebbs often leaving you thinking well after you have put the book down. I also managed to listen to the audiobook alongside this which has also been brilliantly narrated keeping me interested and feeling a real connection with Sora. A high 3 * for me.

When Sora's home in Japan is destroyed in an earthquake with her mother inside, Sora feels uncomfortable left behind with her American Dad in a mixture of guilt and loneliness as she tries to navigate grief and feeling a bit of an outsider in her Japanese culture. She discovers that the cordoned off earthquake area has a strange relationship with time, where it runs at a different speed then the rest of her town. Sora is sensitive to the time changes and she discovers that time has cracked in all the earthquakes zones around Japan and she can detect where it runs faster and slower. This is interwoven with Japanese culture and the worries of teenage life.

This is a beautifully written book, with interesting, realistic characters with a myriad of flaws and quirks. The relationships are complex in a very true sense, the author has done an outstanding job of bringing them to life. However, the middle of the book is very slow and loses purpose. So if you want outstanding writing with a unique concept and another culture to soak in and explore, then this book is great, but not a lot happens. It's a quieter book which had an intriguing premise. Sora is such a relatable teen with everyday insecurities that young readers will relate to.

The subject of time was interesting, although sometimes it made my head spin, specially towards the end.
When Maya was introduced i straight away knew i was going to like her character.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but it was a mesmerising read. Sora is a fully relatable character, dealing with grief and loss as best she knows how, while also trying to look after her equally devastated father. Kumagai's writing is genre-defying - part young adult, part sci-fi, part dystopia, part romance... but it all comes together into a fully realised whole that will stay with you after the final page. I look forward to reading more from this author.