Hesitated between 2 and 3 stars, but decided to be generous haha. It was really cute. Very whimsical. Perhaps TOO whimsical for my taste. I see a lot of people complain that there’s no plot and I don’t think they’re wrong, but that didn’t bother me. It’s really more vignettes of this department store that sells dreams. The world isn’t developed that much beyond it—we don’t know who are these people working there, where they are coming from, the town in this dream world etc. It sounds very much like our world but also not. The characters are both quirky and extremely mundane to the point of bland because they’re not really developed. And the writing is simple and pared down but not in a good way. The “lessons”—for lack of a better word—were too on the nose, the book felt childish and simplistic. That said, there was enough colour and enough fun little details to keep my attention and involve my imagination. Plus it was short. I didn’t have a terrible time, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it despite my rating.

(also I wish we had more capacities to invent what is basically after life/dream life/heaven/hell/what have you worlds that aren’t just “lol here too you have a job and need to make money and fill paperwork and bureaucracy and capitalism are king isn’t it funny”)