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My only complaint is that the audiobook is narrator by AI and so the chapter delimitations weren't clear. The AI's voice though wasn't bad.

Favorite quote : “I am all alone, but I am not lonely” by Masami Aomame

“My depression after losing Dad wasn't acute—the suffering was more like a gradual accumulation of body blows. I would be deeply sunken into it by the time I noticed, and then barely manage to lift my face to break the surface and come up for air. It was a cycle that started over again before I knew it.

I grew pedantic and over-logical, and my body seemed to have hardened and shrunk. Out of self-protection, I took to wallowing in my own thoughts even more than before.

Flowers and light, hope and excitement all suddenly seemed like things that were very distant from me, and I was trapped inside a deep, putrid, and bloody darkness. In it, only the ferocious power that lay deep inside my gut had meaning, and what was beautiful or light had no value at all.”

I recommend it to anyone who loves beautifully drawn manga, medical stories, or the macabre.

One of my favourite recurring quotes in each chapter is the part where the nameless first-person narrator encounters a fortune-teller.
‘The old woman took my hands and pored over them, nodding to herself.

"Mm. You seem to be extremely hard-working and talented." I was already impressed by her keen insights. Just as in the proverb "a clever hawk hides its talons," I had modestly kept my good sense and talents hidden so no one would find them, but I did such a good job that I hadn't been able to locate them myself for the past few years; for her to spot them within five minutes of our meeting meant she couldn't be any ordinary fortune-teller.’

I found the story's events deeply moving; there were a few moments when I cried.

Besides the heartwarming scenes, I also liked the quiet moments when they shared delicious-looking meals as a family, or when they walked to a local shrine, which were also mouthwatering and calming punctuation points.

From reading the descriptions, I have discovered and added a few anime films to my “to-watch” list. 

I appreciated the practical chapters on the five senses, how to make the most of each moment through them, and on paying attention. When I had a tea recently after having listened to this audiobook (even though tea/coffee is usually a part of my daily life) I took the moment to pay attention closely at the sight of my mug and the shade of the colour of the tea, the sounds a first spring-time bird co, feeling the warmth of outside of the mug, smelling and tasting the flavour and aroma of the tea. It was a great insight into an everyday experience. 

Vol. 4: Ai is such an interesting and sweet character and seeing the happy times at M.M. land and how everything resolved itself with Ai was really nice!

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Vol. 6: The mochi waffles sounded really tasty in this volume, and it was really nice seeing Takeo's mom again and seeing how everyone was treating her with more care even though she didn't feel as if she needed the extra caution! It was also really nice to learn more about how Takeo and Yamato were as babies.

Volume 21: I can't describe the dichotomy of how nice but ominous it felt to see characters I've missed, again. Since I read this volume picking up from where I last left off a few years prior, I felt a bit lost. I was incredibly surprised by all the mix of comedy into the volume and the fact that it was even called out in the plot did help. Rather than a line, there was a particular scene this volume that I found funny as it reminded me of the abandon brain moment in the "Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue" TV special.
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Volume 17: The inside volume cover is so good!! I'm really into the theme of these with our characters in kind of day to day photos. Something I didn't think would've happened was the preview of the new characters to come in later volumes. I also enjoyed seeing Ieri and Ijichi, even in such a short while. Outside of the aforementioned, there were two things I found quite interesting. One was seeing how different characters grapple with grief across the volume. The other boggles me. Volume 19 Ch. 168 has a cover that in my mind seemingly correlates to the imagery in this volume, but I can't quite put my finger on it. My guess is that it alludes or represents a curse or curses but I truthfully have no clue.
My favorite line from this volume was "No... She took it with her." I imagine this mini arc is probably where the creative choice involving Maki in the new season's Opening Theme Video stems from but maybe that's my wishful thinking.

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Volume 18: I ended watching the adaptation before reading this volume, so one of the things I most enjoyed was seeing the original material and extra bits that didn't make it in the animation. I had originally skipped volumes 17 and 18 because there was always a long line of readers borrowing them. It wasn't until now that I found out I missed out on crucial backstory for a character I was and continue to be fond of in future volumes. Something I found quite funny was finding out that because the volume cover is zoomed out on volume listings, I had originally thought the markings were a form of CPU/motherboard imagery. It was also fun to notice some typos, I don't remember that happening very often in this series.

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Volume 20: Rereading this volume reminded of the gem that was Slow Juju Days, Part 2. The line "Oh no! It's totally obvious!" was hilarious.

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Overall, going back to the previous volumes helped me notice that this arc (and it was probably laid out long before) is a lot about watching relationships and people connect in a time/situations where there are so many newly established and pre-existing walls around them. We're seeing and learning about the kindness our characters are or had bestowed onto others when at the start of the series it had to involve Yuuji in some way. I assume this is probably a work of world building and something that was bound to happen as the "world" expands and more characters come in. It's really fun and interesting seeing beloved pre-existing characters interact with these situations and with these new and largely really normal people.

Spoilers and triggers: great for people who like unreliable narrators and multiple perspectives. BOTT was a great depiction of abusive parent-child relationship and this one is a good example for intimate partner violence, grooming, and the 'boyfriend method' of human trafficking. The two girls might be in love? I can never pick up on romance unless someone specifically offers to make miso soup or the book ends with them at the alter. Do no expect that kind of ending but it actually is a very empowering impactful ending even if this is otherwise a really messed up book.