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The eighth Suzumiya book is structurally different from before. The series has been a combination of short story collections and novels. This time, we get two novellas.

The first one circles back around to the start of the series and the fact that the SOS Brigade is using the Literature Club’s room, and Nagato is the only member of the club. So, the student council suddenly pays attention to them again, and the SOS Brigade has to do something literary. From the notes, it seems like part of the inspiration was to present some writing by Nagato that Tanigawa had already done once. Overall, that and Kyon’s story are nice, but I didn’t care that much for the overall story.

The second novella is a bit more typical, if there is such a thing for this series. The mystery of dogs suddenly avoiding an area is presented to the characters, and the mystery goes through different beats, as answers do not immediately present themselves. Not that the story really gets a chance to pick up much weight. After a bit, there’s another go around, and we get to the heart of the matter, and the fact that there will be a solution is obvious, and that solution follows very quickly.

Still, everyone is nicely in character, and neither of these were expanded to a full novel which they couldn’t support. Generally, I’m happiest with the novels, and this continues with the trend.