The difference between this book and other books is that this is not a book. A book has an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. More importantly, a book has a plot that's centered on some sort of conflict. This light novel is just a series of words. There is no conflict, there is no climax (and so no rising and falling action), and therefore there is no resolution. There are events, and those events happen in some order, but that isn't enough. Plot Let's start with the plot. The book is 143 pages long, and the gist of the plot is two people wholike each other get together, play Reversi, go on a date, and briefly visit the main character's home. Nothing else happens. That's not a plot. That's just 4 events, somehow stretched over 143 pages. In most books that would be a chapter. What's the central tension? What's the conflict?

Consider another short book, just for comparison: "A Wizard of Earthsea" at 183 pages. (major spoilers) In that book, we are introduced to a main character and a fantasy world. One of his first acts is to accidentally release a magical catastrophe on the world. The rest of the book centers around the protagonist trying to fix his mistake. Many other settings, characters, and events happen in that story (definitely more than 4), but the point is that there exists a central tension, it builds to a climax, and it's ultimately resolved. Even in a short book, it's more than possible to do.

Characters
Soukichi Kuroya is among the worst protagonists I have ever encountered in a work of fiction. He's just so exceptionally unlikable that I don't understand how anyone can root for him, tolerate him, or have a conversation with him. It's no surprise he has no friends. And there's no hidden depths to his character. Beneath his 6th grader cringe is just more cringe. Let's illustrate with examples:

(a) His girlfriend waves to him, and he hides behind his friend. How old would you guess he is? He's supposed to be 15-16. I would have guessed 7.

(b) He can't sit across from his girlfriend at a table and look her in the eye. That's not normal teenage awkwardness, that's a social disorder.

(c) He keeps talking about "his pride as a man", which makes me want to change my gender just to not be associated with him. No one talks like this. No one thinks like this.

Some characters do start out terrible, but work hard to be better. Soukichi though not only starts worse than basically any character in any manga or anime I've read, he also doesn't ever try to improve. He's comfortable to wallow in his swimming pool of self-pity, and not even his wish-fulfillment perfect smokeshow girlfriend can pull him out.

On the other hand, there is the mystery of Tokiya Shimokura. He's portrayed as a high school boy who regularly sleeps with and stays over at the homes of adult women. In the book, it's played for laughs, but in actuality that's really disturbing and likely a crime. It seems that his close friend Kuroya knows about him spending nights with a 27 year old woman and doesn't think this is a problem. And that's a problem!

Writing
The basic structure of any dialog between our MC and fMC goes like this:

girlfriend: "Do you do X because you like me?"

MC: "No definitely not. It's not because I like you at all baka"

MC's internal dialog: I am just a pathetic loner please don't tease me

girlfriend: [is upset]

MC: "Fine I admit it I like you"

girlfriend: [happy]

MC's internal dialog: My pride as a man is wounded

Since it got so formulaic, I started counting how many times this exact formula was reused in the book after I noticed it around chapter 3. I counted 9 times. I'm not sure if this book had an editor, but if it did, he was at least as incompetent as Atsugi (the editor mentioned in the book), because this is definitely something that he should have caught and told the author to fix.

Conclusion
Unlike the book, I want my review to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. To conclude, what is this book *about*? What is its theme? What is its message? I couldn't find one, except maybe it's that anyone can publish a book, and there will always be a few unfortunate souls who like it despite its quality.