Nothing like gut-wrenching emotional damage!

There Are Things I Can’t Tell You is a pretty heavy semi-romance manga depicting the up and down relationship between Kasumi and Kyousuke, on and off again friends since childhood. Both had issues with living up to their parents’ expectations and while Kyousuke has an issue with always needing to achieve, Kasumi has fallen apart and is barely keeping it together. Kasumi is having an affair with a married woman to fill the hole in his life left by his love of Kyousuke, and Kyousuke is in love with Kasumi and regrets turning him down all those years ago. They suck at communication and actually talking about their feelings as they’re both in love with one another but refuse to accept it and tell the other because they think the other is better off without them. As per usual in dramatic romance manga, they’re both idiots.

Kyousuke throws himself into work to his own detriment, obsessing about his designs and pitch ideas and working several all-nighters in a row. He cannot handle when he doesn’t get chosen for things and thinks if he’s not first place/first choice, he’s useless. They’re just both very depressed and sad and broken men who don’t think they deserve anything better than what they have and all their sadness is brought upon themselves by their own actions. This is not a happy book. Eventually, they do start to talk and open up to one another, but it’s only pages from the end that this happens. It leaves the reader with a bittersweet feeling; they’re finally together, as they should be, but they will have to work hard on their issues to be together happily. This is a pretty heavy read with a lot of emotional trauma and self-blaming, which may turn a lot of readers off. Nevertheless, it’s an honest depiction of a troubled relationship with the hope that the two figure things out now that they’ve been honest with one another.

Title: There Are Things I Can’t Tell You
Author: Edako Mofumofu
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
ISBN:  9781427863195

Three Descriptors: Angsty, Heartwrenching, Emotionally Heavy