[2] The novel follows a 19-year-old middle-class girl, Yayoi, as she navigates her strange premonitions that grow stronger with age.

Kirkus Reviews lauded the novel's dreaminess and sense of haunting, stating "this melancholy bildungsroman acknowledges the way that leaving behind adolescence can evoke the bittersweet sensation of waking up from a strange and vivid dream.

"[4] The New York Times noted "Yoshimoto bucks beautifully against convention" with regard to her women characters.

"[6] In comparison to Yoshimoto's same-year debut, Kitchen, The Spectator called the book "a similarly slender work and one that casts a delicate spell.

"[7] ArtReview stated "Yoshimoto has always had this extraordinary ability to convey the ephemeral natures of her main characters in plain yet diaphanous language".