All You Need is Kill - Hiroshi Sakurazaka

⭐ 7.5/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

Keiji is a soldier in a war against aliens who are trying to terraform the Earth (although yes I suppose it wouldn't be called terraform in this case). During his first battle, he gets killed - but then he wakes up the day before the battle again. He relives the same two days over and over, always getting better at fighting, but always dying in the battle. But maybe the famous female soldier will be able to get him out of this time loop.

Apparently this book was adapted into the movie Edge of Tomorrow? I haven't seen it, but I did think that was interesting, and that of course they cast Tom Cruise instead of a Japanese person. Anyway, it was a very cool concept, and I liked that there was an actual reason for why he's stuck in a time loop, instead of just ~magic~. The writing wasn't great, but that might be mostly due to a mediocre translation. Either way, it was short and I thought it was cool, but the writing and characters could've used some work, plus war stories just aren't my thing, even if it was with aliens.