I was so excited for this title and liked it when it first started. As the story progressed I found myself wondering when we would see the deeper connection to the character the MC was struggling to let go of. Once two characters are introduced the story felt divided and slowed down. By the time I reached the end it didn’t really feel like the MC resolved the issue and I found myself confused still why exactly she was so deeply impacted. The other character was a sounding board for feelings but didn’t offer much clarity. I guess you could say the main question felt like it was left up in the air even though the story tells us we got the answer. So, it was a story that posed a very powerful question but provided a vague answer to that question.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

The Yomigaeri Tunnel is a beautiful book, but also a brutal one. It deals with very heavy topics, and some days I found myself only able to read one chapter because the emotions were almost overwhelming.
The titular tunnel is one that evokes all those urban legends you've heard over the years. Haunted tunnels are an especially prevalent superstition in Japan, and I know I heard my fair share of stories while living there. So, it's very fitting that the main cast is all of Japanese descent. However, this is a story for everyone.
Above all, this book is about grief and the different ways it can effect us. It also has a lot to say about how the more difficult grief for us to process can often be related to someone we didn't know very well. And other types of grief don't have to do with the passing of someone at all.
Though this book is hard to digest at times, it's an excellent read and one I think will impact many readers.

Recommended: sure
For anyone who has known someone who died, for two looks at grief and death from teens' perspectives

Thoughts:
Well obviously this is a heavy read, given it's entire focus on death and grief. It moved very fast, and the story itself is quite quick. There's a tight focus on what is being discussed and it's explored in a series of vignette-like scenes. Monika and Shiori are at the tunnel in record time, with just enough setup prior to establish some of where Monika is at and her existing relationships and worries in life. In the tunnel, they are thrown into an unpredictable scenario that confuses all their perceptions of what is real. It's a very dream-like state where nothing is certain and they don't know what to trust. Is it real? Is it in their head? Does it matter?

As they relive memories and encounter people in their life who have died, we learn more about each of them and the way they are connected through their experiences. I appreciated that there were themes around grieving loss in other ways, like a friendship that has ended and the fear of change. The relationships Monika and Shiori had with the people they are trying to bring back are so completely different. The ending mirrors this as well, in a very tender way. Tender as in pushing on a bruise, maybe.

Throughout the actual narrative plot is conversation around mental health and drug use and how people grieve. There's definitely a hand of guilt in here too. The focus is on the characters working through their complex and overwhelming emotions. Sometimes they do this together, and sometimes they lash out in their pain. There were some clear mouthpieces to help people who might be going through this themselves, or have loved ones who are. Statements around how a person isn't being cruel or manipulative, grief is, felt very gentle in a topic and age that desperately needs it.

That said, it moved SO fast that I felt like I didn't really connect with the people and scenarios in the story beyond my natural human connection of dealing with life after a death. I don't think I cried at any point, which is shocking because I am a crier and this is crying material. But each section with a new person or idea was relatively short, so it kept me at arms-length remembering this is a story instead of getting sucked in. In a way I appreciate that, because it made it a bit easier to read.

Overall, yes this is a tough story. It handles really difficult topics and scenarios that are undeniably painful. But it also highlights the connections that can help carry people through those times, whether they realize they need it or not.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for a free advanced copy. This is my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Soho Press for the ARC copy of The Yomigaeri Tunnel. This has not affected my review at all, which are my own thoughts.

I may not be the target audience for YA (young adult) books anymore, but sometimes you can find absolute gems in there😌

I'm already declaring "The Yomigaeri Tunnel" my favorite book of the year 2025, even though is not even out yet (comming our way July 1st) and that there's other books I'm way too interested in coming later in the year. But, it make me feel so much, intensely and raw, all webbed together with realistic characters and an intriguing plot, so can I not loved it and put it at my TOP three? And it had me sobbing by the end, what else can I ask from it? Anyway, that's all y'all need to know, review ending here😂

Kidding, don't worry. We get serious now. *clears throat*

Even though is her last summer before her and most of her classmates go to college, Monika is swimming in grief after the death of Shun, a strange classmate with whom she had an odd relationship and who wasn't able to sit with the rest of the class at graduation; moreover when it seems like she's the only one that cares about it. And then, she hears about a local urban legend: the Yomigaeri Tunnel, said to be capable of bringing back to life one person she desires if she's able to make it to the other way of the Tunnel, overcoming the trials thrown at her. Monika decides to go and find out what's the ordeal. There, she finds Shiori, attracted by the legend too and wanting to bring back her mother. Together, they venture in the Tunnel in search of a miracle.

So, as said, The Yomigaeri Tunnel is a story about grief, about navigating it, a wound's balsam for both the characters and us the readers. Because, this book, not only features grieving our dead ones, but life too: what could have been, people gone due to different life choices... Grief manifest in very different ways for many different reasons and individually, a contrast clearly shown through Monika and Shiori's interactions as they complete the Tunnel's quests and challenges. Because each girl has her way of showing it and dealing with it, and never do they invalidate each other, something I also appreciated.

I must admit, that I thought the story would get repetitive towards the middle, because of how the Tunnel challenges are presented and Monika goes through each one of them. But it never happened. Each challenge had its own way of presenting, of teaching something new to Monika and showing her some truth. Of course, I liked this structure because, even though the order of events is almost the same (the girls separate, they go into the "challenge", they pass and reunite with new emotions and events to talk out), they were different and they all showed different moments of Monika's (and, sometimes, Shiori's) life and that is what make me appreciate in a way that, in any other novel, I would have found annoying. In fact, I'm sure there will be people that will find this way of advancing annoying, repetitive, without much substance, and that's completely find. For me, the emotional aspect and getting to know the girls better is what carried it for me and made me not care so much about the repetitiveness, but it won't be enough for others, and I respect it.

Overall, I loved The Yomigaeri Tunnel, in case y'all couldn't tell from this review (xD), and it is mostly due to the emotional punch it gave me, directly to the gut, and how relatable Monika was to me. I think this is a very personal book, so some people will like it and some people will not, precisely for some of the reasons I've mentioned here, and that's completely find. In my opinion, the book is well written, with three dimensional characters, a very lineal and simple plot, and a deliverance that will touch people's heart's strings. It is also a tale of friendship at its center, with Monika and Shiori, but also with Monika and Shun and Monika and her best friend, and how these three relationships, along with the one with her parents, define her as a person. And I loved that friendships were treated as important as any other ones.

So, yes, a total recommendation from me, for anybody that's dealing with grief and wants to see that reflected in a book, or if y'all are looking for an emotional read, or just about a magical Tunnel that changes our character's lives. Of course, take into account the warnings for this book: death, addiction, suicide...

Thank you NetGalley, Soho Press and Kelly Murashige for this ARC in exchange of my honest review.
This book broke me in more ways than I can explain... It made me think, it made me feel, it made me remember and most of all, it made me appreciate what I have instead of keep mourning what I lost. I read this at a very hard moment in my life, which made it really difficult, for it does cover some strong themes, however, I love the idea that a book finds you when you need it, and I believe that this book was there for me to help me get through this tough time. ❤️‍🩹

I think if I were the target age for this novel, I would've liked this a bit more. But reading this as an adult, it wasn't really as emotional as I thought it'd be.

I remember being young and dealing with grief and loss for the first time, so I understand all of the feelings and emotions involved. Grief is so multilayered that dealing with it as a teen/young adult can be so difficult. So I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't really feel all the feelings while reading this novel.

I think there were too many parts to the story, so it was difficult to really understand the FMC and why she felt the way that she was feeling. If I had gotten to know Monika better, and how each aspect of her life related to the heavy emotions that she was feeling, then I would've enjoyed the novel more. Without this connection, each experience in the tunnel, including Monika's difficult relationship with Shiori, felt like random scenes being thrown at you with only a sliver of context.

While this novel wasn't for me, I hope it'll find its audience with other readers.

Thank you to Soho Teen and NetGalley for this arc.

I’m speechless. This is the kind of book you read without really knowing where it leads. Think of a bittersweet Alice in Wonderland. It’s equally as preternatural as it is far too real.

Kelly Murashige writes about grief in a way that is gripping. This book begins with a letter from the author that had me in tears, and then it transitions into young Monika’s story. Regardless of your current situation in life, the moment you pick up this book, you are with Monika processing her grief. You enter with Monika into the Yomigaeri Tunnel to revive her classmate, and that’s where this inconceivable journey begins to unfold. You both learn of concealed truths that have impacted her life in ways she did not know, and you both mourn the loss that she is just now starting to comprehend.

In many ways, this book is less about aching for what you’ve lost and more about grieving for what could have been. Grief manifests in so many ways and is difficult to process at any age. I imagine all the young readers who will read this book and feel inexplicably proud of the author for creating a tale will undoubtedly touch the hearts of our grieving youth.

Many, many thanks to NetGalley and Soho Press for this ARC!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

The Yomigaeri Tunnel by Kelly Murashige is a first person-POV YA speculative dealing with grief and the impact our past has on our present. Monika’s classmate Shun has passed away and she’s not ready to move on even though the world is. She goes to the Yomigaeri Tunnel to bring him back and meets a girl named Shiori who is determined to do the same thing for her mother. But the more time the girls spend in the Tunnel and experience their memories, the more they see each other’s memories as well.

One of the things I thought was really interesting was the integration of fandom and connecting to art and how that relates to grief and healing. Monika is a big fan of a game called Bitter Mouse, a narrative character-driven video game, and has used this game as a way to process her grief. We don’t know a ton about the game’s story itself or the story, but we do get some information on Monika’s background with the game’s designer and how his death impacted. Art, no matter what medium, is a very important part of how we experience the world and come to terms with the things that hurt us, so seeing it here made a lot of sense but it also felt a bit more modern and open-minded by that art being a video game.

Addiction plays a pretty big part in Monika’s family history. Her uncle was an addict who went to prison when she was young and her grandfather was a smoker. Due to this, Monika and her mother abstain from any substances that could possibly be addictive and are more cautious in life. Normally when we see addiction in fiction, we see the gritty aspects or the impact of abuse and how that can be connected to addiction, but here, we see ordinary people who made choices they regret and struggled to get out and how that affects the people who love them. It is a very different take on an addiction storyline than I am used to seeing, but it’s a very important one because it helps to humanize people who are struggling while also recognizing that these things can run in families and a common response is to just remove yourself from temptation as much as you can.

Shiori’s memories are a bit harder to read for me personally. Her mother is quite controlling (I would go so far as to say emotionally abusive) and yet Shiori is trying to bring her mother back from the dead and blames herself for her mother’s death. Shiori’s boyfriend can see that something is wrong and he questions her relationship with her mother, though not in the most productive manner. This storyline hit me pretty hard and there were times that it felt too close to home. But I think that’s the beauty of it and this book: these two girls are experiencing grief in deeply complex ways where there are no true heroes and villains, there’s only people as messy and imperfect as they are.

Content warning for depictions of emotional abuse and a car accident and mentions of addiction

I would recommend this to readers of YA looking for a grief narrative that deals with the topic honestly and readers of speculative fiction looking for books discussing the impact of addiction

A wonderful story with many twists and turns. I love how the character goes through an eerie setting with folklore I am unfamiliar with.

Monika just graduated from high school and but not everyone in her class made it. Shun died before graduation, and Monika is grieving more than anyone realizes. They were just classmates, but she can't let him go. Learning about a legendary local tunnel said to resurrect the dead, she embarks on journey to bring him back. But the Yomigaeri Tunnel won't relinquish Shun without showing Monika all her fears and her secrets. And as she travels further she meets other ghosts, ones that have more claim on her sacrifice.

Why I started this book: Requested this ARC because of its Japanese connection and YA genre. Looking for new titles for my library and community.

Why I finished it: Slow start, but ultimately a good book about grief, ghosts, and connection. I was worried that it would just be flashbacks that Monika experienced in the tunnel but as she progressed it got more interesting. I finished it in a rush and I will keep my eye out for more books by Murashige.

I feel like I'm definitely in the minority here 'bout this book.

I'm sorry, despite the heaviness of the themes, I just could not gel with this book. The prose felt so stale and dry to me, and the execution of the premise fell short due to the tedious repetitiveness of it. The girls separate to go into a memory, they come back together to be sad or angry about what they experienced, then they do that, like, five more times til they finally leave. I was literally falling asleep the whole time waiting to connect, to feel something about this story and its characters, but I just don't.

All in all, this book will probably do a lot better with others than it did with me.

Thank you to Soho Press and Kelly Murashige for the ARC!
This was a very emotional read for me honestly and I liked it a lot!
I like how dimensional Monika is, and how she seems to have these emotions that she starts to understand the more she goes through the tunnel
It's a really good story of finding yourself and understanding what life is about, and the complicated things that surround it
Even though we get some clarity that the tunnel and resurrection isn't real, it shows how important it is to be a good person and live the life you want to live, but also understand that you can't bring someone back despite how much you wanted to
I also liked that Monika used the game as something to understand herself, I found that super interesting
Also she developed a lot throughout the story, becoming more open, talkative, caring and free from these things holding her down
I did like how we get some understanding about the deaths of Shun and Shiori's mom, and it made Monika realize even if she liked/loved him, would it be good to bring him back?
I also liked Shiori and Thea's parts in the story, as Thea is relatable (an avid reader as well as a caring friend) and seeing Shiori go through the tunnel and seeing her own experiences that weigh her down, which gave her a lot of meaning as well as make it so Monika and her can bond
Overall this was extremely emotional and relatable for me, I devoured this!!

This book was incredible! From the beginning it intrigued me and I was hooked till the very last page. I cried at parts and I could feel the pain and emotions as they swept over the characters. The main character Monika is memorable and multi layered which made me relate and love her. I adored reading this and the journey it took me on is unforgettable!
I deeply enjoyed the journey through different characters who had passed on and I found their perspectives and stories equally interesting!

It was 2am when I finished reading this. After doing so, I noted down all my favourite quotes. The writting was beautiful and Monika a relatable character. Hopefully, I can become strong like her. I had no idea how she kept it together in the end.
As someone who also loves video games, I wish I could play Bitter Mouse as well, it sounded like a unique experience and the more Monika talked about it, the more interesting it sounded.
Her uncle was probably my favourite character, it was because of him that I teared up at one point.

I received this ebook from Soho Press on NetGalley - thank you!

"I just want to make things that hurt in a way that matters. In a way that heals. In a way that makes people realize there is a light at the end of the tunnel", says the protagonist. And I think that is just what the author has done.

The story touches upon difficult and important topics like grief, guilt, parent-child relationships, friendship, love and the most challenging aspects of adolescence. I wish I had read a book like this when I was a teenager. My best friend passed away when I was 17 and I didn't get much emotional support at that time. I felt lost trying to navigate the first huge loss in my life and figuring out a way to heal on my own. I am sure that a book like this would have helped me immensely.

I think young people need this kind of books that will help them navigate grief and cope with loss. I am sure this story will mean to someone what 'Bitter Mouse' meant to the main character, Monika.

Not a bad book by any means, but I wish it had touched me more. "The Yomigaeri Tunnel" is without doubt an emotional novel that deals with many heavy themes, but the structure of the book made it really hard for me to connect. The premise of a mythical tunnel with the power of reviving the dead was very intriguing to begin with, but the execution was not what I expected. The book follows 18-year-old Monika who is at a difficult point in life. She just graduated high school but doesn't really have a plan for the future while friends of her do, and she is very upset because of the recent death of a classmate. After she overhears a conversation about the Yomigaeri tunnel she decides to search for it and bring her classmate back to life. The little glimpse into Japanese folklore was nice, but listening to a random conversation was a poor introduction to the topic and rather uncreative in my opinion. The book then focuses on Monika's experiences inside the tunnel where she is unexpectedly not alone. She meets Shiori, a girl who wants to bring back her mother, and both of them face the mythical tunnel. They are forced to relive painful memories and are constantly thrown into episodes from their pasts. Sometimes the events play out exactly as they remember, sometimes they can change their actions. At other times they talk to spirits, and after a while Monika and Shiori even enter each other's memories. I couldn't really grasp what the actual function of the tunnel was supposed to be, because so many different things happened inside it. It somehow still felt repetitive. The girls would fall into a memory / hallucination, then wake up and be disoriented and sad, and repeat. Almost the entire book is structured that way, save the clunky beginning and the very end, and that wasn't enough for me. While I do think that this way of storytelling made me understand the characters piece by piece, it also misses out on a coherent plot. Especially Monika was thrown into so many different scenarios that it was hard to actually care. I did feel sad for her because she's been through so much, but many things were only ever mentioned once without any deeper exploration. I wish the book focused more on 2 to 3 moments of Monika's life, and made her really reflect on her past and realize what that means for her future. The portrayal of grief was well done, though. It was talked about how you can heavily grief a person that you weren't even that close to, about how there are not only positive sides to a deceased person, and how death can make you feel a strange sort of relieve. The author states in the beginning that she wrote this book after her own experiences with grief, and so that part felt very personal. It made for an overall emotional and engaging story that was dimmed by the narrative structure for me. I still think that this story will appeal to many readers and I would broadly recommend it. My actual rating is 3.5 stars but I have to round down on Goodreads, because a 4-star rating doesn't sit right with me here.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Soho Teen for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Yomigaeri Tunnel by Kelly Murashige

Kelly Murashige’s The Yomigaeri Tunnel presents itself as a young adult novel, but its thematic depth and emotional sophistication challenge any assumption that its appeal is limited to adolescent readers. At its core, the novel engages with grief, memory, and the blurred boundaries between the living and the dead—offering a reading experience that is as unsettling as it is thoughtful.

The premise, a mysterious tunnel in rural Japan rumored to bring the dead back, immediately introduces the possibility of fantasy. But Murashige resists the temptation to use magic as a form of escapism. Instead, the tunnel becomes a psychological and emotional space; a metaphor for the cyclical and disorienting nature of grief. It is not a portal to healing, but a rupture in time that allows characters to confront their most painful attachments and unreconciled memories.

What distinguishes the novel from others in its genre is its refusal to sentimentalize loss. The protagonist's grief is rendered with rawness and unpredictability. There is no promise of redemption, and no comforting notion that closure is inevitable. The character’s emotional trajectory is non-linear, more reflective of actual mourning than the tidy arcs common in young adult fiction. Murashige’s depiction of grief aligns more with literary realism than genre fantasy, even as she employs elements of magical realism to construct the narrative’s framework.

Japanese mythology and cultural motifs are interwoven throughout the novel, not as exotic embellishment, but as integral to the characters’ worldview. These references—whether folkloric or spiritual—provide a culturally specific lens through which the characters process trauma, navigate family legacies, and interpret the supernatural. The inclusion of these elements adds texture and authenticity, grounding the story in a particular cultural consciousness without resorting to over-explanation for a Western audience.

Memory, in The Yomigaeri Tunnel, functions both as a narrative device and a thematic concern. Murashige explores its unreliability—how memories distort, disappear, or become embellished with time. The tunnel acts almost as an externalized memory space, echoing the protagonist’s interior conflicts and emotional disorientation. Through this, the novel raises important questions about the ethics of remembering, the seduction of nostalgia, and the consequences of trying to undo the past.

Stylistically, Murashige’s prose is restrained but evocative. She avoids overexplanation, allowing silence, hesitation, and repetition to speak where characters cannot. This minimalism contributes to the emotional weight of the novel, forcing readers to sit with ambiguity rather than pushing them toward resolution. It’s a form of writing that respects its readers, young or adult, and trusts them to carry the story’s emotional load without guidance.

The Yomigaeri Tunnel stands out not only for its mature treatment of difficult themes, but for its ability to locate the supernatural in the emotional terrain of adolescence. It is a novel about what we carry, what we forget, and what we would give to go back—even when we know we shouldn’t. For readers of any age who have experienced loss, this book may feel less like a story and more like a mirror. It doesn’t provide comfort, but it does offer recognition. And in that, it earns its place well beyond the boundaries of its marketed genre.

3.5 stars. Enjoyed the book. Had a good plot and loved the characters in the book. Was structured well as well. Have no complaints

The Yomigaeri Tunnel is a beautiful and heartfelt exploration of grief, loss, and healing. The story follows Monika, who has just graduated from high school, and who is mourning the death of her classmate and childhood friend Shun. She finds out about the Yomigaeri Tunnel, which is said to allow you to resurrect the dead if you can make it through. Naturally, Monika decides to venture into the tunnel in an attempt to bring Shun back. She meets Shiori, who wants to bring her mother back to life. They're brought closer by their shared goal as they navigate the tunnel and undergo challenges and trials that force them to confront their painful memories.

I was extremely moved by this book and I know it will stay with me for a long time to come!

This wasn't the fantastical, magical journey I had hoped for. More of a young person's personal reflections about mortality.