Water Moon

by Samantha Sotto Yambao

Would you rewrite your destiny if it meant losing a part of your past?

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it.

Most will see only a cosy ramen restaurant. And just the chosen ones – those who are lost – will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop's new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike other customers. For he offers help, instead of seeking it.

Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice – through rain puddles, hitching rides on paper cranes, across the bridge between midnight and morning and through a night market in the clouds.

But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own – and risk making a choice she will never be able to take back.

Step into the captivating and romantic fantasy novel that will sweep you away on an unforgettable adventure - perfect for fans of Studio Ghibli, Erin Morgenstern and Before the Coffee Gets Cold!

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Fiction, Magical Realism, Mystery, Audiobook, Adult

374 pages, Hardcover

First published January 14, 2025

About the author

Samantha Sotto Yambao is a professional daydreamer, aspiring time traveler, and speculative fiction writer based in Manila. She is the author of Water Moon, Before Ever After, Love and Gravity, A Dream of Trees, The Beginning of Always, and THE ELSEWHERE EXPRESS (Jan 2026)

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine walking through the door of a cozy Tokyo ramen restaurant only to find yourself in a strange little pawn shop where the owner offers you tea and asks if you’d like to sell him your deepest regret in life. Welcome to the Pawnshop of Almosts and Ifs.

Toshio Ishikawa has spent a lifetime collecting these life choices so their owners no longer have to carry them. As things go, there are other powerful beings who come to collect them for their own purposes, and the consequences of any of them going missing is dire - something Toshio has painfully experienced when his wife stole a choice years ago.

On his first day of retirement, when daughter Hana is set to take over the shop, she finds it ransacked and Toshio missing, along with a highly valuable pawned choice. At that moment, young physicist Keishin walks through the door expecting ramen and finds himself in the middle of chaos. Instead of offering Hana a regret, he offers her his help and from here the story takes flight.

One jump into a moonlit pond later and these characters took me on one of the most magical, creative, dream-like adventures I’ve experienced in the pages of a book! I was immersed into a fantastical world of beauty and darkness where, as the book often reminds us, “nothing is as it seems”. Hana and Keishin come from two different worlds … literally, but watching Hana’s ethereal world mix with Keishin’s scientific one was fascinating.

I used to watch a lot of anime with my daughter when she was younger and fell in love with stories set in and about Japan, and also with the style of storytelling. There’s an emotional depth and imagination that it taps into that feels unmatched sometimes. I can see why other readers have made comparisons to Studio Ghibli or anime in general, because the highly visual details and emotional storyline would lend itself beautifully to the screen. I can only hope an adaptation is made!

I could quote this book all day. For all the visual and emotional beauty, there’s a deeply philosophical quality to it that examines the choices we make, the beliefs and regrets we hold onto and the power of changing our perspective on the past. That aspect reminded me a bit of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library. The story isn’t perfect and gets a little confusing at the end, but its good qualities far outweighed any minor complaints. I would let Samantha Sotto Yambao’s imagination take me anywhere!

If you like speculative fiction, cozy fantasy, adventure, mystery, magical realism, a touch of sci-fi and romance - it’s got a mix of them all. I listened to the audiobook for maybe two minutes and didn’t care for the narrator’s style, so I don’t personally recommend the audio, but it may work better for others. I highly recommend this!

★★★★ ½ (rounded to 5)

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group / Del Ray, NetGalley and author Samantha Sotto Yambao for this digital ARC to honestly review. It’s out now.


____________________________________

I’ll leave you with some favorite quotes:

Broken things have a unique kind of beauty, don’t you think?

Happiness has little to do with what you have, and everything to do with what you do not.

Losing your way is oftentimes the only way to find something you did not know you were looking for.

I have learned that most people do not wish to hear the answers they seek.

Books do not find value when they are written. They find value when they are read. Every book here is both worthless and priceless at the same time. It depends on who you ask.

I have learned that there is nothing to be gained from stealing other people’s happiness. No matter how much you have stolen, it is not something that you can ever use for yourself.

There is a river that runs between knowing and understanding.

For the same reason all fools give up good things. We look at our hands and wonder what we could hold if they were empty.

Learning to live with freedom is almost as difficult as learning to live without it.

[Kaitlyn Herrera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Water Moon was my first jump into Japanese-inspired fiction, and I was held in wonder as this beautiful experience of a book unfolded before my eyes. There is a pawnshop secreted away on a Tokyo side street that specializes in the buying and selling of otherworldly, invaluable merchandise: incapacitating regrets that haunt the living. Existing in a liminal space between one moment and another, the shop can only be found by those who are lost. Toshio, the pawnshop’s owner, has been a devoted sentinel, ready to offer a helping hand to beseeching customers for decades, providing comfort and relief to those afflicted, unfortunate souls who walk through his doors with weighty regrets to sell. Now it’s his daughter’s time to shoulder the burden. Ishikawa Hana is scheduled to inherit the pawnshop from her aging father, but within hours of her father’s official last day, Hana discovers he’s gone missing, the pawnshop has been vandalized, and something irreplaceable has been stolen. The reader gets swept away on Hana’s truly extraordinary journey, along with an unexpected travel companion named Keishin, a young physicist who is not the usual customer at her shop. Hana and Keishin will defy the natural laws of science and shatter what they both thought they knew about their worlds while trying to piece together Toshio’s mysterious disappearance. Their choices bring them closer together and closer to the truth, which can only result in a cataclysmic rift in the precisely drawn lines of predetermined fate. Both Hana and Kei will come face to face with a Water Moon---something so tantalizing their souls ache for it, but it’s always just outside of their reach. They both will have choices to make, secrets to guard, and a Water Moon to catch. If finding each other means possibly losing pieces of themselves along the way, Hana and Keishin must decide if a future together is just too costly.

A tale of self-determination and of grief and healing, Water Moon is a contemporary fantasy novel with a comfy-cozy dose of warm fuzzies: lessons are learned, fate is frustrated, and friendships and destinies are precariously balanced on the edge of the world as we know it! I loved how there are numerous poignant lessons lovingly woven into the plot. I felt particularly moved by Hana’s resiliency as a main character despite the tremendous emotional burden she’s shouldering, and I frequently admired the deftness she demonstrates when navigating such a fantastically unpredictable and unforgiving world. I was really rooting for her and Keishin, even with the odds stacked steeply against them, and I was all too happy to ride out the tidal wave made from the tectonic shift in fates they were creating by choosing each other again and again. This delightful story made me contemplate how each individual decision we make every day, no matter how small, leads to the next, generating an inexorable ripple effect from the choices both made and unmade. Talk about existential crisis! I highly recommend this book! Picking up this book will be like waking up inside an enchanting fever dream suffused in soul-rending emotional revelations, heartwarming familial devotion, and compounding fateful decisions. Very succinctly, this book is an exquisite work of art crafted from the inspirational magic of the human experience, highlighting how just a singular person with a singular choice can have astronomical transformative power.

Thank you so much Net Galley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine/Del Rey for the ARC and the opportunity to share what I think! All opinions are my own. Publication day is January 14h!

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh boy! The magical world-building in this fantasy takes you to places like jumping into ponds to travel around parallel universes, putting your head on your pillow to wake up in a land where a bridge connects you to another dreamland, or listening to candles to hear the prayers of the person lastly talked to them.

The story takes place on the backstreets of Tokyo: a magical pawn shop that can only be found by people who intended to eat at a ramen place but entered here to trade their deepest regrets and some life choices that needed to be changed in exchange for something that belongs to them. Regrets turn into birds to be caged in a vault, to be shared with shiikuins, who are wailing, scary people (somewhat supernatural entities) wearing masks.

Hana Ishikawa has been raised in this shop, learning to read people’s emotions, their resentments, and regrets with the help of her master father who reached her lessons by sending her scavenger hunts, leaving clues behind for her to solve the puzzles.

Now her father, Ishikawa Toshio, decides to retire, and this will be Hana's first workday, even though she wakes up with a terrible hangover-induced headache, finding the store intruded upon, everything strewn around, the furniture turned over, and the door that separates her from the outside universe (the real world) open! Her father is nowhere to be seen. It seems like somebody tried to steal something from the store because one of the acquisitions is missing, and her father might have followed behind the thief to catch him.

But the incident in the store seems staged, which raises more questions about the whereabouts of her father. And this is not the only struggle she has to deal with. A charming stranger bangs on the door, helping her to clean the ice cut at her feet, bandaging her, intrigued by the mystery of the pawnshop just like any other puzzles he likes to solve as an aspiring scientist. His name is Minatozaki Keishin, still talking to the ghost of a man who tried to save his life, getting attracted by Hana’s stubbornness and calmness.

Even though Hana initially rejects his help, she realizes she cannot bring her father back alone. They team up, revealing many secrets about her own life, and she realizes there’s a possibility that her mother might be alive and her father went missing to go after her. But this is not the only secret she finds that may change everything she thinks about her purpose, her family, and her meeting with Keishin in the pawnshop might not be such a coincidence.

What if the entire truth shatters everything into pieces and there won’t be a future for them to be together as their worlds get more apart at each second and the threat of Shiikuin gets escalated?

Overall, this is a creative, unique, well-executed fantasy with surprising twists I never saw coming. I loved the brilliant mind of the author and am looking forward to reading more of her works in the near future.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing House/Ballantine/Del Rey for sharing this unique fantasy’s digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

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[Fairuz ᥫ᭡. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gave me all the vibes of a Studio Ghibli movie, but unfortunately, as a book, it didn’t hit the mark for me. Like, imagine if someone tried to turn a dream into a story but forgot to add the substance. 🌙✨

The concept was SUPER creative and had me all OMG this could be amazing—a magical pawnshop for regrets in Tokyo? YES, PLEASE! 😍 But wow, the execution? Not so much. It was like the book was trying to be deep and whimsical but ended up feeling more like an endless loop of nonsensical adventures. There was so much magical whimsy—paper cranes that fly, puddles you can jump into for teleportation—but it felt like the author just threw in every idea she had without really tying them together in a meaningful way. 😵‍💫

Let’s talk about Hana and Keishin... I wanted to love their dynamic, but the insta-love was WAY too fast for my liking, and I couldn’t buy into it. They had literally just met, yet their connection was supposed to be so deep? The dialogue between them also felt super stilted, like they were trying too hard to be philosophical but ended up sounding... awkward? Like, who talks like that in real life? 🤨

The pacing was all over the place. There were moments where I thought, “Okay, we’re getting somewhere,” but then the plot would just drift off into another whimsical adventure with no real purpose. 🤦‍♀️ I needed more tension, more urgency, but it just never came. It felt like the story was just wandering around, chasing after some off-page character, with no real sense of direction.

I will say, though, the world-building was lovely in its own way. The imagery was stunning, and the dreamlike settings were definitely a visual treat. But as much as I wanted to love this, it just didn’t come together in a way that made me feel connected to the characters or invested in the plot. 😔

In the end, I think this book will find its audience, especially if you're into magical realism and whimsical vibes. But if you're looking for a deeper, more grounded story, this might not be your cup of tea.

[manju ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

in high school, i had a teacher who told me that only two things in life were guaranteed: death (a little depressing i know) and choices (probably not in that order). from the moment we are born to the moment we die, we make a series of choices that ultimately define us and write our lives into permanence. incredibly charming, inventive, and insightful, water moon is a novel about exactly that: the choices we make, the regrets we have, and how we learn to live with both. i think humanity as a whole tends to take decisions for granted, even (or especially) the ones that seem the most inconsequential. but a life of choices is a life of luxury — because how mundane, how hopeless, is a life predetermined? and if choices are a luxury, then certainly, the same can be said about regrets.

in the way that it is executed, water moon is unlike anything i have read before. it overflows with yambao’s creativity as she constantly introduces some novel facet of her parallel world that manages to be even more magical than the last. and in doing so, she offers new perspectives of our own, encouraging us to reevaluate what we think we already know. and aren’t those the best kinds of books? the ones that challenge you? the ones that change you.

this one’s for the escapists, the adventurers, the dreamers — my favorite kind of people. indulge yourself, if only for a moment.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc!!! 🥹🥹

[emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

i think owning a magical pawn shop may be my dream job.

but this book created a perfect world, then took me exclusively to places i did not want to go.

in other words, i loved the fantastical surprisingly creepy parallel universe of this magical pawn shop, but i did not care for this storyline.

long before the term romantasy was coined, i found myself repeatedly frustrated by how many fantasy novels punt any sort of adventure in favor of a star-crossed, fated love story. this did that x1000.

these people do not know each other (and we don't really know them either), but we are expected to believe that their romance can drag us through scary environs and hundreds of pages and multiple universes and a surprisingly high death count and we'll still come out on the other side rooting for them.

no matter how i tried, i could not get there.

bottom line: take me back to the magic pawn shop!!!

(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)

[Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

the unnecessary romance between one dimensional characters ruined what was a very unique and wonderful story

[lea ִֶָ☾. · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Broken things have a unique kind of beauty, don't you think? Especially people. They shatter in the most fascinating ways. Every dent, scratch, and crack tells a story. Invisible scars hide the deepest wounds and are the most interesting.”

i'm not sure how to rate this book. i mean, it was cute, but it just didn't do anything for me at all. the reading experience for me was like watching a studio ghibli movie due to the whimsical places the story takes us to, but it simply lacked the elements that make those movies so special.

i think a big reason why i couldn't fully enjoy the book was the whole execution. the dialogue was stilted, the writing clunky with lots of awkward phrasings, and the pacing was just extremely messy throughout the whole book. the characters felt very one-dimensional, they behaved and talked unnaturally most of the time, plus they did not act their age at all. i had to keep reminding myself that the two main characters were supposed to be grown adults with keishin being an actual scientist with a phd?? yet they felt like YA cutouts and their insta-love was not even believable because they had no chemistry whatsoever. i wish haruto had played a bigger role in the story because he was far more interesting than both mcs.

the biggest strength of this book by far is the dreamlike setting and the creativity of this whimsical world. if you're just looking for a cute magical realism adventure, you might have a good time, but if you're looking for something with more substance beyond all the whimsy, i don't think this book is gonna offer that.

thank you to random house uk for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

[Lisa of Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exquisite elements that didn’t come together

Ugh…..Water Moon had so many interesting elements, and there are—no doubt—glimpses of brilliance in this book. However, when I came away from this book, I was a bit disappointed.

The book starts off strong — Water Moon is a fantasy book which opens with Hana Ishikawa who discovers that her father is missing. She also is the new owner of a pawnshop but not just any pawnshop.

After this, she goes along on a string of low-stakes adventures.

As a reader, the plot unfolds more like a very low angst To-Do List. Nothing is very difficult, and, therefore, the progress doesn’t feel very satisfying. Additionally, the quest isn’t building up to an ultimate showdown.

The characters themselves are rather flat; they don’t feel like real people.

There are some really great quotes in the book, but they don’t come across as organic. It seemed almost as though the chapters were built around them, and in 2.3 seconds, the reader is awkwardly transported to another place. In some instances, the pacing seemed too fast.

The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text – $28.99 from Flyleaf
Audiobook – Free through Libby

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[Melanie (meltotheany) · Rating 3 out of 5]

oh friends, this is a hard one to rate and review. this story follows hana, who is 21 and living in tokyo, where her family has a generationally passed down magical pawn shop, hidden somewhat behind a ramen shop. but this shop isn’t for bartering and trading regular items, it’s for having a cup of tea and talking about life choices and regrets. hana grew up knowing that she would inherit the shop one day, but she did not anticipate the shop being broken into, something stolen, and her father going missing on the first day that it is officially hers. but when her first customer, keishin, stumbles in, they end up going on a very magical journey to hopefully find some answers.

this book is beautifully written, like gorgeously so. and i absolutely loved reading hana and keishin going from different magical places, to different magical place, with such lush imagery and prose. i also loved the themes, like fate vs choice, and i thought the end really beautifully tied it all together. but sadly, this book did feel all over the place, and maybe that was intentionally so, because they are jumping from place to place, but it also just felt very unsatisfying to read. and again, the concepts and themes were so good, but we really didn’t get to touch on them for long, because of said jumping all over the place. i am just really torn on this one, but i still highly recommend it!

trigger + content warnings: loss of mother in past, some light body image / talk of eating things, drinking, heart attack in past, blood, mention of cancer, talk of assault, maybe drugging, abandonment, anxiety and anxiety attack, pregnancy and labor scene, talk of death/murder of children

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━━♡ buddy read with nadia

[lei · Rating 1 out of 5]

(1.5)

for me, water moon’s huge potential was undermined by its awkward writing and one of the least developed romances i’ve ever read. even though its plot and world work overtime in an attempt to save it, i spent most of my time with this book sighing and rolling my eyes instead of being swept up in whatever magical adventure the premise promises.

i’ll start with what i liked, if only so that i can complain without stopping later on. i think the world in this book is very original and imaginative. admittedly, people who prefer organized worldbuilding where everything has some logic behind it might not enjoy it, as there’s not much explanation, but i personally thought it was fun to read about all of the different realms that the main characters traveled through. i also liked the fast-paced and adventurous nature of the plot.

unfortunately, these things lost all of their impact due to the fact that the writing in this book is, in my opinion, absolutely awful. it’s so clunky and monotonous that it ended up ruining all of the book’s biggest moments for me because i never felt invested in the story. instead, i felt like the author was just telling me about everything that happened in the most lifeless way possible, with random interjections that try to sound poetic but end up being bizarre. there’s a part of this book that includes the words “the last few minutes of sleep were always thicker, creamier, and more delicious” and it’s still haunting me while i write this review. how can sleep be creamy? am i missing something that everyone else has understood this whole time? please let me know.

on top of that, water moon’s romance (which really takes up way more page time than it should) is arguably even worse than its writing. not once in this book did i care about hana and keishin. they are so boring that one of them could’ve exploded on the spot and i wouldn’t have blinked. i remember basically nothing about either of them, and i have zero clue why they’re even in love because they start sighing over each other and whining about how they can never be together about 0.2 seconds after they meet. despite barely knowing each other, they pine like they’ve been married for a million years and divorced for another million. their relationship was honestly excruciating to read about and reminded me a lot of the romance in sue lynn tan’s immortal (which i…did not enjoy, to say the least). i think i would’ve enjoyed this book a lot more overall if the characters had just been friends.

i really wanted to like this, so i’m disappointed to say that i (clearly) didn’t. still, i have to give the author her credit for coming up with such an interesting universe. for this reason, if she writes something similar in the future, i’ll most likely check it out (but only if there’s no romance in it).

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing this arc.

[Leo · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is the prime example of the saying, ”All style, no substance”. I debated for a hot minute on whether or not I wanted to give this book one or two stars, but I came to realise that there was very little to nothing I liked about it—and that which I did like came with a massive asterisk.

This book is one big orientalism soup, complete with mis-written Japanese and nonsensical Japanese. I find it really, really hard to believe that the author claims there was a Japanese reader for this. If there were, then she must’ve skimmed it quickly. There was also an egregious historical error that led me to believe this book cannot possibly have had an editor—unless the editor was just as drunk as Chiyo during the process.

You know it’s bad when I have to do a structured review, so here we go. Prepare for a bit of an essay.

🌙 THE CHARACTERS 🌙

- These have to be the flattest characters I’ve read about in a while. Although the story starts with Hana, she soon is reduced to a fairly passive passenger in her own story, falling to the wayside to focus on Kei, our real protagonist. Her personality is that she’s the humanoid equivalent of the standing person emoji, and that she likes to exposition dump and tell Kei that nooooooooo this isn’t your battleeeeeeeee

- Kei is a Japanese child that moved out of Japan when he was eight, supposedly losing his touch with the culture/language after… except for the fact that he’s perfectly fluent unless the plot requires it. I’ll get into that later. His personality is that he is a scientist and uh. Is just down for literally everything all the time. Good for him?

- Hana and Kei have zero chemistry. They fall in love instantly. They’ve met for all of an hour and Kei is immediately ready to irreversibly ruin his life for her. This never changes, there is never any good build-up; there is an almost-sex scene that is so very absurd, where Kei just randomly starts taking Hana’s breast into his mouth. Like, huh? Okay?

- We’re introduced to about a million side characters that just don’t matter, so I won’t waste my words on them aside from when it’s relevant. I thought Haruto’s powers were neat, I suppose.

- Ramesh adds nothing to the plot. I liked the scene where we learnt he was dead and that’s it. He’s just there to be Kei’s supportive Brown brain friend, I guess.

- Everyone just trauma-dumps in this 24/7 in a way that’s completely unnatural and breaks immersion.

🌙 THE PLOT 🌙

- Concepts and worldbuilding bits are introduced at a break-neck speed that renders almost all of them insignificant. A majority of the book consists of Hana and Kei going to a new place through some abstract means, Hana going “this is the xyz world, where people do (insert abstract concept). To get help from them, we have to give up (insert other abstract concept).” Then Kei offers himself up, then Hana goes noooo omg you can’t it’s my battle you don’t even know me, and then rinse and repeat every 10 pages or so.

- We are beat over the head again and again that this is sooooo cozy Ghibli-core or whatever… but none of these things mean anything! The concepts aren’t symbolic, they don’t reflect nor work with the themes of the book, and they’re pretty much all forgotten about instantly and don’t come up again. What was the point of introducing and then discarding new concepts every few minutes, repeating it as if caught in a spell by some kind of wicked formula? This book would’ve been significantly better had we had more time to spend in these million places, whether that’s by making its runtime longer (please no), or by just cutting down on the concepts introduced.

- Due to this constant new concept introduction, about 90% of the dialogue is purely Hana explaining things to Kei. It feels like the book is more exposition dump than plot. It feels like a shoddy attempt at shoving as many unique concepts one can think of into a limited amount of pages.

- Although Chiyo’s actions sort of made sense, there was truly no reason Toshio freed the bird that lead to Kei’s creation. Like, he didn’t have to do that, he could’ve just… fled.

- Characters instantly change their mind about things constantly because the plot just doesn’t have the time to develop anything. Kei is mad at Hana because of a major betrayal, then immediately forgives her 3 pages later. Haruto is determined to give up his memories of Hana, then immediately is like nevermind, I’m cool dying with them.

- Near the end, the pair kills only a few Shiikuin, then after Hana resurfaces 5 years later it’s implied that… I don’t know. She just somehow managed to make the world Shiikuin-influence-free, even though throughout the book they’re invincible. How would that have ever worked? How would people free themselves so easily in a world where they’re vulnerable and can’t fight back—a world where you are murdered just for slacking on the job once? I’m not saying it’s impossible, but why did we skip over that part of all things?

- Kei meets with his mother by coincidence (who abandoned him. Not impossible, but odd given the whole plot revolves around how she regretted giving him up in the first timeline), and then we time skip to 5 years later and they have a good relationship again. We are not ever going to see how that relationship formed because all that matters is Hana and Kei are getting together again. Not how Kei miraculously got over being abandoned for most of his life.

- This plot is just too ambitious with too little follow-through. This world has people mapping out your entire life and you cannot stray from it… except you can quite easily. Except you also can’t because it’s also technically not against Hana’s incomplete tattoo.

- There is a scene where Kei helps a random pregnant woman give birth in an elevator. This is never brought up again and has no plot relevance. But I guess if you really want to read about your male lead helping a random woman give birth, here you go.

- Hana’s search of her father was not convincing to me, considering he was kind of a shitty father from the few glimpses we saw. Her mom and dad die in the end pretty quickly, and I guess it doesn’t matter because Hana learnt that all she really needs in life is her instant boyfriend she met about a week ago.

🌙 THE WRITING 🌙

- It’s just not very good. You can tell Yambao is neither an experienced writer, nor that she’s read very much. She’s supposedly never had any sort of training in writing, and while I don’t think it’s necessary as self-taught authors can definitely be good… in this instance, you can absolutely tell.

- I think the problem with these “Ghibli dedications” is not just that they do not understand the source material, it is that they try to put a movie into words… but that doesn’t make for very good book writing. Books do not have the privileges and powers movies do. They cannot multitask in the same way, they do not have visuals to carry them, etc. There is no meaning to Water Moon’s many mixed metaphors, because the only point of them was to be cool.

- There are so many ham-fisted metaphors filling the text that just do not work. “Heat licked Hana's breasts and writhed like a flame between her legs,” is an absurd sentence.

- A lot of the dialogue feels like Yambao learnt dialogue from stilted Asian translated works. Like someone who’s only read fan translations of manga, and that’s how they think people talk. “You may call it Isekai” comes to mind instantly—still a most ridiculous line that I hoped was comedic. It is not.

🌙 THE ORIENTALISM 🌙

- This book is just straight up racist. There is no two ways about it. From the start, you can tell that its author isn’t familiar with Japan nor speaks Japanese. I do not think you have to necessarily be from a culture to write about it, but it is a daunting task that Yambao was clearly not equipped for. She did zero research beyond occasionally playing tourist, and that shows in the worst ways.

- People use really awkward and stilted honorifics, in a way that is reminiscent of a bad anime fanfic. I paused when I read “Otou-san”. Say dad like a normal person. You don’t have to over-emphasise how Japanese this book is.

- There is a moment where Hana introduces “kashu” to us, singers who use magic, blablabla… the issue is that Kei goes ”WHAT ON EARTH IS A KASHU?”, as if 歌手 isn’t a completely normal noun that just means singer! So he’s able to explain neutrons in perfect Japanese, but he doesn’t know what singer means? Come on!

- Kei somehow has never heard of the tale of Urashima Tarou. Okay. I guess he lives under a rock or something.

- While I do not begrudge the use of macrons despite not liking them myself, the fact that Yambao was completely inconsistent with them was aggravating. We had “Ryūjin” and “Taro” in the same sentence. Either pick both Ryūjin and Tarō, Ryujin and Taro, or Ryuujin and Tarou—you cannot just randomly mix romanisation styles! And this keeps happening throughout the book because nobody who is even remotely familiar with Japanese apparently checked this book.

- At one point, Yambao quotes a Japanese proverb… incorrectly. The kanji is wrong and so is the romaji—but the kicker is that the kanji and the romaji do not even say the same thing. Like, seriously, I cannot emphasise how much there was zero editing, both by a Japanese speaker and in general! This isn’t acceptable in a published book, and is deeply racist. Selling someone else’s culture for profit, and then not even giving enough of a shit to spell check a common proverb? Really?

- The Kyoiku Hakubutsukan is mentioned… which is the previous version of the National Science Museum, changed in 1949. At first I assumed this would be relevant—maybe Hana’s timeline is older? But no, it’s just called that in this world because of reasons.

- At some point, Hana calls the other world “isekai”, and there are two mentions of “ikigai”. Both of these are ridiculous—the first sounds like you’re making a joke (isekai genre, anyone?), and the other is a thing that, certainly, it exists in Japan, but it’s not this elevated spiritual thing Western yoga instructors try to sell impressionable Western audiences. God.

- I know that Yambao is Filipino, but that does not make it better. That does not entitle her to sell a culture not her own so shoddily. No, it does not matter that “it’s both from Asia”, Asians are not a monolith, being Asian doesn’t beam knowledge of all Asian things ever directly into your brain.

- This book is deeply racist and orientalist. It treats Japan like the mystical other, where completely normal and easy to translate nouns are written in Japanese purely to make the book seem more “Ghibli-core” and “exotic”. 折鶴 is a completely normal noun that just means an (origami) paper crane, you don’t have to keep going “ah… the mysterious orizuru…” We get it, Nippon ichiban or whatever.

- The worst part is that most people aren’t going to notice any of this, because it’s common to see Japan as a commodity, an exotic other of concepts and people that aren’t real nor matter beyond the consumable natures of anime and J-pop. It is an imagined apolitical safe haven where everything is mystical and magical, where it is cozy and lo-fi. The general public isn’t going to care that this is a complete butchering of Japan written by someone that clearly doesn’t give a shit.

- Please refer to this review also to read about the bad Indonesian references. Yikes. So the author is just in the business of wrongly portraying every Asian culture. This book is very much “haha, Japan is when sushi and ramen xD” and nothing else.

MORE IMPORTANTLY… there is a moment in this book where Hana cites a completely incorrect fact about the Titanic of all things. It adds nothing—why was this added?! Frederick Fleet did not have his binoculars, true, but that is very much not the cause of all of those deaths. The Titanic was speeding at night in an area that was known to be unsafe. Binoculars would’ve not helped his vision, and in fact was not recommended procedure at the time. He lamented it because he struggled with survivor’s guilt, and then took his life eventually later in life after losing his wife.

It is so, so far from okay to blame that man for it when there was a whole slew of crew mishandling both before and after the iceberg. I would go so far as to say that is it evil to spread that kind of misinformation about a man who committed suicide in real life, and struggled with survivor’s guilt.

🌙 IN CONCLUSION 🌙

Water Moon is an incredible waste of potential by an inexperienced author who wanted too much. This sort of ethereal book is difficult to pull off even by experienced authors writing about their own cultures, about things they actually know, so for her to attempt this when she clearly knew absolutely nothing about Japan was… bold. Foolish even. Offensive even.

This book is some kind of horrible fanfic of… I don’t know. Japan in general? Ghibli? Whatever it is, it doesn’t work on any level unless you’re completely ignorant of the fact that Japan is a real place that exists with real people.

Nothing matters in this book, so I’m going to try to not give a shit about it either. At least it makes for pretty shelf decoration.

Justice for Haruto, at least he was slightly interesting. Hell, even that random old woman was more interesting. Izumi was probably even more interesting.

[Krysta ꕤ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ☆

i have to applaud this book for its original concept and whimsical imagery. the main characters Hana and Keishin are opposites: he believes everything has a clear answer and can be solved through a scientific lens, while Hana’s way of thinking is more open and she knows that there’s shades of grey in every situation. i liked the idea of this book so much and i had a fun time seeing all the different scenarios the characters ended up in throughout their journey to find Hana’s father. i just found the execution to be all over the place and nonsensical in a way that kept distracting me. i understand that Hana’s world has endless possibilities but it didn’t feel like the plot had any progression because of that, it was a lot of snippets tied together randomly. i also could’ve done without the romance cause it was too insta love and i didn’t believe that they would go through all this for eachother when they’d literally just met. so overall, this was a mixed reading experience for me but its pros and cons are pretty even.

➵ many thanks to NetGalley, the author and Random House Publishing for the arc, all opinions are my own.

[Jackie ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's giving ✨Studio Ghibli✨

Rating: 3.75 ⭐️

The cover encapsulates the vibe of this book perfectly. Water Moon is wonder made real. A world where stars are actually kites and regrets are caged birds. It's markets in the clouds, trains powered by dewdrops, and flying origami cranes. It is incredibly whimsical.

This book follows Hana and Keishin as they search for her missing father, looking for clues while traversing this fantastical realm. It was beautiful, but I feel like I might have seen too much of the world? We see so many different places that we never get the chance to really enjoy any of them before we are off to the next one.

Now, the ending was twisty. And I really liked that. Nothing made sense and yet everything made sense. I don’t know if it was perfect, but it was definitely entertaining.

Overall, what really made this book stand out was its scenery and world-building. And while I had a couple criticisms, Water Moon felt wholly original and imaginative.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for providing me early access to Water Moon in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──
Pre-read:
A little pawnshop where you sell your regrets? Sign me up. Thank you, Netgalley 🥰

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure this book met expectations. Everything I'd read about made me think it was going to be more than it was. I also am not convinced this is an adult book. It read more like a young adult book to me.

I loved the imagery, and I thought it was an inventive book in many ways - the parallel world, the portal through a pawn shop folded inside a ramen shop, folding as a theme (folding time, folding memories, folding origami), the quest and the rules that governed Hana and Keishin's journey, and question of what is actual choice. So I thought it had a lot of great elements. But somehow, there was still something lacking. I can't quite put my finger on what it was that was missing - that magic x factor that would've made this story exactly what I wanted it to be.

More than a 3 but not quite close enough to round up to 4.

[Велислав Върбанов · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Библиотеката съхранява всичко и нищо. Книгите не получават стойност, когато бъдат написани. Те я получават, когато бъдат прочетени. Всяка книга тук е едновременно непотребна и безценна.“


„Луна във водата“ ми допадна страшно много! Книгата се оказа мистична японска история, коя��о е поднесена по симпатичен начин, но същевременно са вложени задълбочени послания. Основната тема в нея е тази за значението на житейските избори. Авторката елегантно е вплела романтична история към това чудесно съчетание на приказно фентъзи и магически реализъм.

Сюжетът ни пренася в загадъчна заложна къща в Токио, където понякога неочаквано попадат посетители на ресторант. Към даден момент Хана наследява управлението на къщата, а скоро там се появява физикът Кейшин, който решава да ѝ помогне да потърсят нейния тайнствено изчезнал баща. Двамата се забъркват в доста вълнуващи мистични приключения...





„ - На някои неща им отива повече да бъдат повредени, отколкото на други - съгласи се тя съвсем тихо, сякаш се опасяваше да не би гласът й да строши купичката.
- Откривал съм красотата в най-различни счупени неща. Столове. Сгради. Хора.
Идзуми вдигна поглед от чая си.
- Хора ли?
- Особено хора. Те се повреждат по най-интригуващи начини. Всяка вдлъбнатина, всяка драскотина и пукнатина разказва някаква история.“


„Кейшин зяпаше безбрежния океан от пясък.
- Всичко това е време, така ли? Мигове от живота на други хора?
Хана кимна.
- Но какво прави музеят с нашите грешки?
- Това е Музей на образованието. От какво ще се учат посетителите, ако не от грешките на другите? Някои уроци са по-важни от други, но всички са песъчинки от мъдростта.“


„Всъщност хода на живота им определяха избори, които изобщо не съзнаваха, че правят. Промените бяха малки, дори нищожни, но отклоняваха житейския им път съвсем леко и го насочваха към бъдещите събития.“

[Logan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very interested in the premise, and I thought the first couple of chapters were very well written, but the second the love interest was introduced, clever writing took a backseat and everything started happening at lightning speed.

What worked for me: The vivid descriptions of the world. The ideas for the world. The concept for the plot.

What didn’t work for me: The insta-love. The lack of character development. The superficial depth given to this imaginative world. The plot execution and constant jumping back and forth.

I’m sad to say that by the 3/4 mark, reading this book became a tedious chore. I’m sure some people will like it, but this was not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC!

[Quill&Queer · Rating 2 out of 5]

- shelved under: books that could become my entire personality
- reshelve under: most anticipated releases than end up being disappointing
- so many scenes in this story were dark and weird, not the cosy surreal vibe i wanted
- the elevator birth scene? the scene where a month old baby is screaming being tattoo'd?
- the romance was hammy and i hated it

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fantasy mystery novel is a curiously compelling read that transports you beyond this world , for fans of Studio Ghibli, Starless Sea and Before the Coffee Gets Cold with a touch of Alice in Wonderland and Weathering with You. Certainly not lacking in excellent plot twists, but unfortunately in emotional depth which was a pity.

There was something about Hana and her odd stories about tea boxes and treasure hunts that piqued his curiosity, which was something that, outside his lab, had not happened in a very long time. He had met his share of beautiful women, but it was not Hana’s quiet, delicate beauty that made a part of him glad that he had stumbled into her pawnshop by mistake. Just behind the calmness in her eyes lurked the shadows of secrets, peeking out one moment and darting away the next, as though daring him to give chase. And there was nothing Keishin enjoyed more than a good puzzle.

[ Contains some spoilers ]

PLOT SUMMARY
In Tokyo, there is a normal cosy ramen restaurant – but for a select few in need who step inside, it becomes a pawnshop where you do not trade the usual valuables but your deepest regrets: choices that were made (or not). It is imperative that these choices, once stored away, never leave the shop.

21-year-old Hana Ishikawa will be the new owner of it overnight as her widowed father Toshio plans to retire. The business has been in the family for years, and it is important it forever thrives. The next morning, all is quiet in the store – too quiet. Toshio seems to be gone after what looks like a terrible scuffle where he perhaps went in pursuit of an escaping choice, were it not for a card with a moon over the water, and her mother’s glasses which imply this is staged. On top of that, she believes her father drugged her the night before. She believes that the two cases of her mother’s and father’s disappearance are connected. What’s more, there is evidence her mother is still alive.

At that moment, in stumbles scientist Keishin “Kei” Minatozaki, a man always searching for answers and, unlike all the other clients, offers help instead of seeking it. He gets more than he bargains for when Hana reveals she is from a world beyond ours, causing Keishin to question everything he has ever known.

From jumping into ponds to listening to prayers at the Whispering Temple to crossing the Midnight Bridge in their dreams to stepping into the inked realm to sailing through songs to passing through paper doors to visiting The Valley of Stars that set the night sky to riding literally on rumours, Hana and Kei are in for the greatest adventure they will ever know to find her parents, meeting interesting characters along the way – and staying hidden from the evil Shiikuin.

But all, as Hana keeps telling Kei, is not as it seems. Not even Hana herself.

The fallen blossom cannot return to the branch.
A broken mirror cannot be made to shine.

This is told from mostly the third-person past-tense POV of Hana and Kei, with occasional chapters or sections from other characters’ perspectives.

OVERALL OPINIONS
I think the songs that best match the vibes of the book are Ed Sheeran’s “All of the Stars” and Taylor Swift’s “Wonderland”.

Water Moon is Yambao’s 5th novel and first UK debut. I could tell from the stunning descriptions in the opening chapters that she has a natural gift for storytelling. Take one of the early examples of the descriptions of Hana’s father:

He would not say anything if he caught a mistake. He never did. The slightest twitch of his right eyebrow sufficed. Toshio preferred silence to words, reserving his energy and breath for his clients. Hana had become rather adept at interpreting his quiet breathing, half smiles, and glances.

This description albeit in some ways simple is so effective: the first three sentences convey that he is a silent man before she explicitly tells us this. And it tells us a lot about Hana too: she is also silent yet observant, analytical, calculative.
When Toshio is speaking to the mysterious lady who enters the shop about the pottery with kintsugi, she says that some people hide their damage better than others, and it is spoken “so softly it was as if she were worried that her voice might shatter the bowl” – it captures the essence of the woman here! She is desperate, she feels broken and fragile. Beautiful!

I think the Japanese culture was introduced and explored very well, with mention of the kintsugi technique which repairs broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold (a reminder to embrace imperfections – “Broken things have a unique kind of beauty, don’t you think?”). Hana also feels like if the pawn shop had a name, it would be Ikigai (which is Japanese for “reason for living” or “sense of purpose”). We also have a great paragraph about Studio Ghibli ruining Kei’s experience with buses ever since seeing the Catbus (couldn’t agree more!).

I really love the concept of this story! The different things that make Hana’s world different from ours were unique and reminded me of Alice in Wonderland: like the shells that don’t sound like the ocean but tell jokes instead, crane birds that are made out of paper, prayers that are listened to instead of spoken, trains that are not guaranteed to ever show up, even after 50 years (though, it could be argued that trains not running on time can sometimes feel that way in our world haha) – oh and if you are missing any socks, chances are they or any forgotten things have arrived at stall 510 in the market place. It was a lot of ideas thrown together and, while some are random, it worked rather well. Curiouser and curiouser, indeed.

However, from the moment when Keishin shows up, the beautiful descriptions I mention feel like they vanish and the pacing shifts drastically from slow to fast. Too fast, methinks. The bond between Kei and Hana is really sweet but missing a lot of depth so I didn’t feel for them as much as I’d have liked. I mean, take this example: “Keishin brushed his lips against her wrist. Hana’s cheeks flushed. She pulled her hand away.” This otherwise lovely moment feels super quick and even unrealistic! Surely there could have been more of a time-standing-still moment, how they feel in this moment. Please, don’t give us nothing!

The world-building happens as the reader goes, so we are essentially finding things out at the same time as Kei – which I consider a weaker aspect as there is no history or backstory behind a lot of it. Some thoughts: how did the Whispering Temple come to be? Why is it invisible? How is time folded into paper? It’s just a: this exists, this conveniently happens and that’s that.

Now, don’t get me wrong, let’s look at this from an anime perspective, particularly the likes of Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky) and CoMix Wave Films (Your Name, Weathering with You, Suzume). Most of these films I have listed that these Studios made have straightforward (albeit sometimes confusing) plots with some interesting magical elements and a bond between the male and female love interests that could be considered not that deep just enough to show some chemistry. As far as I am concerned, this follows that sort of blueprint just fine.

The multiple plot twists near the end I wasn’t expecting and they were great, though it took me a moment to get my head around. There were so many I felt like “another one, thank yew” haha.

Overall, this is a 3.5 rounded up to 4. I wish this had spoken to me on a deeper level.

<< Positives >>
🠚The cover is the prettiest thing ever!
🠚Amazing and unique concepts in the plot. I think my favourite places were the ink world and the Valley of the Stars.
🠚Gorgeous descriptions!
🠚Handled and explored Japanese culture with utmost respect
🠚Matches the vibes of anime produced by the likes of Studio Ghibli and CoMix Wave Films
🠚Hana and Kei are really sweet! I love how he is always trying to go out his way to help her.
🠚Incredible plot twists. I didn’t think they’d end haha but they were really good! (I loved the one where Hana’s name is engraved on his wrist, reminded me of the anime Your Name)

<< Negatives >>
🠚Kei and Hana’s relationship did not have enough depth.
🠚The way characters spoke to each other sometimes felt one-dimensional and unrealistic.
🠚Other than the obvious bad guys called the Shiikuin (“caretakers”), nobody was evil. I thought we would have had people who were actually working for them, especially since Hana is always talking about how things are not what they seem. I wondered if Haruto would be considering his initial description of looking “strikingly beautiful”. Yet not a single person snitched or double-crossed them? That’s not very realistic and is a wasted opportunity.
🠚No real action. They keep running and hiding. One of the times I would have loved to have seen a scenario play out is when they are trying to cross the Midnight Bridge back to morning so they can wake up. Hana makes it but she realises the Shiikuin got Kei and “the only way he was going to wake up was if he made it to the other side of the bridge on his own”. He wakes up shortly after this, and we do not see how this happens.
🠚The world-building (specifically lore and backstory) was weak. Things just existed and I would’ve loved to know more about it. I also expected to learn early on why the shop collected the choices, though I appreciate there is a reason it is revealed as it goes.
🠚The writing jumps around back and forth between years which I would have preferred less of.
🠚Anticlimactic ending. Like, Hana goes through so much, finds her parents and it’s just not the reunion she hopes for. I also felt that way, like the journey is not worth it. And then Kei’s reunion with his mother is also rather shallow and he doesn’t tell her who he is, yet they have reconnected 5 years from that. I would’ve loved to have been filled in about that.

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Hana꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ Truth be told, I don’t know what to make of her haha. She seems sweet but could be flat at times, also sometimes reserved and cold, doesn’t reveal a lot to Kei and I don’t think he should’ve forgiven her when she does reveal it haha. That was insane!
🠚She is so intelligent though, I liked learning some of the workings of her mind through the flashback of the treasure hunt for example.
🠚Also, I thought at first from this description she had literally got a shard of glass and stabbed him and I was prepared to throw the book: It was almost funny how his strange adventure with Hana began and ended with broken glass. When they met, Hana had cut her foot on one of the broken pieces littered across the pawnshop. Now she had stabbed him with the sharpest of them in his back.
🠚Her parents put her through so much, and she loses essentially everyone – and that really sucked.

“It’s raining.”
“What’s new?” Keishin led Hana outside and ran into the downpour. “It’s just the weather telling us that we don’t belong here.”
“Or maybe, all this time, it’s been trying to tell us something else.” Hana held his rain- streaked face.
“Like what?” Keishin brought his lips next to hers.
“That we belong to each other.”

-ˋˏ ꒰ Kei꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ I love him! He was so sweet and kind. His mother abandoning him and the girl he loves manipulating him feels heartbreaking to me. He loses his mentor Ramesh but I liked the idea he could visit him in his mind.
🠚He cannot stay still, but I love that the person who makes him want to is Hana, that was a touching moment that I wish we got more of in this story. I love his sense of humour too, “I’m a doctor. The useless kind”.

“I told you, Hana. I see you. Only you.”

-ˋˏ ꒰ Other characters꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ Haruto has to be actually the character that struck me the most. Talk about a character who deserved the world: I have never felt more sorry or sad for a character in my life. The gorgeous man with incredible talents, the unrequited love, the sacrifice he makes anyway, the way he is going to get his memories erased but instead prefers to die remembering her. So tragic, yet so beautiful: the man who folded time back for the woman who did not love him back – and her father who condemned him to a life hardly worth living.
🠚 Haruto, you made reading this book worth it but we need to get you a happy ending, my poor man. Give him a love interest he can be with instead – I volunteer as tribute, move Hana!
🠚 Oh and gosh, the quote – the most arguably romantic in all the book!!

“I did not wake up and suddenly feel that I loved you. The only answer I can give you is that it happened gradually. Slowly, and unnoticed, the way the ocean turns rocks into sand. And you are an ocean, Hana. Gentle and quiet, yet powerful enough to sweep away any man or ship. I drowned in you a long time ago and I did not even know it.“

🠚Fumiko from the Valley of the Stars is so lovely, bless her!

FAV QUOTES
• “Losing your way is oftentimes the only way to find something you did not know you were looking for.”
• In a morning filled with the unusual, this woman was the most extraordinary of it all. There was a calmness in the way she spoke, a steadiness he did not expect from a person in her circumstances. Her large brown eyes mirrored her quiet composure, filled with something he had long desired for himself. An absolute certainty of purpose.
• “Kyouka suigetsu,” Keishin whispered to himself. Mirror flower, water moon. … When Keishin asked her why she liked painting reflections, she told him that it was because the most desirable things were the ones that you could see, but never touch.
• Her name in his mouth was a dangerous thing. She imagined how his lips might shape its syllables and how his voice might turn them into a stream of honey wine. Sweet drinks were the worst traitors. You drowned in them with a smile.
• “I’m beginning to think that nothing will ever make sense again.” | “Things don’t have to make sense for them to be real.”
• Stars were interesting but did not hold his attention. In life, as in science, he was more drawn to the unseen. And he had never met a person with more secrets than Hana. He didn’t mind that she kept them. He was used to it. The universe was like that too. It hid its most compelling secrets behind clouds of nothing and noise.
• all he saw was the halo of calm in Hana’s eyes and his face staring back at him from her irises. He envied his reflection. It could go where he could not. He wondered how many of Hana’s secrets it knew, a privilege he doubted he was ever going to share.
• In reality, it was the choices that people didn’t even realize they were making that set the course of their lives. The shifts were small, even minute, but, by the tiniest of angles, they pointed one in the direction of what was going to happen next.
• “They say that hopes about children are the most colorful, hopes about health the brightest, hopes about happiness the prettiest, and hopes about love the most difficult to paint.”
• Before he could retreat into any dream, he would have to endure restless hours staring at a smile that was never meant for him.
• He wanted a woman he barely knew, knowing full well that he was not capable of the same sacrifice the man who truly loved her had given. But still, he wanted her. As much as he wanted to know the stars and all their secrets. Maybe more.
• “A cartographer can craft the most detailed map, include every landmark, and draw the clearest roads. His map can help you get to almost anywhere you wish. Bridges. Parks. Libraries. But not home. You won’t find it labeled on a single map in the entire world.”
• Hana had never met a man more unaware of how he filled the space around him, charging the air. The streak of lightning in his hair made her believe that if the moon disappeared and darkness swallowed them, he alone would remain lit.
• “That is what happens when words are left unsaid. It does not matter how beautiful they are. In time, everything rots.”
• “Arriving at one’s destination is never promised. Only the journey is. Waiting is part of that journey.”

══════════ ⋆★⋆ ══════════

I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank Samantha Sotto Yambao, Random House UK, and NetGalley for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

[Avah · Rating 2 out of 5]

2⭐

I did not like this! omfg i did not like this. If it wasn't an ARC I would have DNF'd it, but alas.

The concept seemed charming to me, very whimsical magical realism: a mysterious pawnshop that trades in life choices, a missing father, and an otherworldly journey to find him. But it was so poorly executed, in my opinion.

WHAT I LIKED: I liked Haruto's storyline. He was interesting to me, and I wish he was involved in the narrative more. I liked the idea of a pawnshop that takes regrets, that can only be reached by people who have regrets.

THE REST OF IT: The characters had absolutely no charm, I was not attached to either of them, and they did absolutely nothing to endear me to them. I was hoping that the romance element would be a supplement to the ethereal and magical setting, but it wasn't. It was instalove, and neither character would shut up about it.

Their dialogue was painful to read, written in a way that made it feel like all the conversations were the author's first draft, like it was never sifted through and edited down to be more readable and natural. It was full of that terrible, commercial, C-grade film dialogue that's just a formula of:

Character A: We're going to the toilet.
Character B: The toilet?
Character A, with gravitas: Yes... the toilet in the bathroom.
--SCENE END--

The formula writers use to make limp dialogue seem important and make the speaking character seem cool or smart. I can get over one (1) instance of this in a film or book without thinking it devalues the overall experience. It is used so many times in this book that nearly every single scene ends like this! Every single transition from one task to another involved an exchange like this! And because of that, the transitions from one location or one goal to another was disconnected and had no sense of movement, either physical or metaphysical.

The magical world was also a disappointment to me. I'd seen some reviews (after receiving my eARC) that call the world here "Ghibli-esque". This is always a red flag for me, because in my personal life experience (NOT UNIVERSAL) I have learned that people who flippantly make this comparison between "Studio Ghibli" and other vaguely magical realism properties have no idea what the hell they're actually talking about. They don't know what film, specifically, to draw comparison with, and they don't know what those films are about besides charming, highly gif-able hand drawn 2-D animation.

Studio Ghibli has made many films, which span many different themes, tones, and art styles. One thing that is consistent, though, is they are tight films. Very concise-- and they have to be. Every scene, every shot, every cut, and every line of dialogue, needs to justify itself to earn its place in the film. Because the amount of time and labor required for all of these tiny elements is insanely high! People can lose sight of that because of the existence of those famous "nothing" shots, where nothing seems to be happening. But those are a deliberate and important choice as well, and the filmmakers are acutely aware of the seconds and minutes of storytelling they are using in these calm, "empty" shots, and thus must make the most out of their action and dialogue scenes.

It didn't feel like the scenes and locations in this book were being used to their full effect. It truly felt like the author had all these sentimental & unique ideas for a rich magical world, but never really justified their existence in this narrative. The way all these magical things work was explained, clearly, so clearly it sort of felt like getting hit over the head, but that's not necessarily a good thing. So many words were spent explaining to us, the audience, how this delicate magical ecosystem works, all the while our main characters are paper thin and their motivations entirely one note. It was unbalanced and it worked against the story, in my opinion.

AND, I was ESPECIALLY mad when I was reading the book, and the male love interest literally REFERENCES Ghibli in his internal monologue! Well, obviously people are going to draw similarities between these two works, because the author drew a bold, red, Sharpie marker line between them! That's just a personal thing, combined with the weird fact that referencing pop culture wasn't a consistent element of the character's thoughts and speech, this was sort of a one off reference (that pretty clearly signaled to me that the author wanted to implant the famous "ghibli" style in your imagination of her world), but still, this review is about my personal experience, so I'm mentioning it 👍.

ONE LAST THING that I don't believe is a spoiler, but it is quite specific so I'll mark it as a spoiler:
There is a magical "Library" that documents and displays moments of time that had huge or important impacts on the world as we know it. One of the two moments that are discussed in the characters' visit to the museum is STRAIGHT UP a LIE about how the Titanic sank! The decision in the library is the moment a crew master on the Titanic who accidentally took the keys to the locker where the binoculars for the outlook were kept. The main character straight up says that, since the lookout didn't have binoculars, that's why no one saw the iceberg. THAT IS JUST NOT TRUE!!! And you can just GOOGLE IT and you'll see that it's LITERALLY NOT TRUE!!!! oh my god I was so mad! It was so lazy! and frustrating! Especially when there are plenty of "moments" in the timeline of the Titanic's last voyage that could have been put in this spot BUT SHE CHOSE A FALSE ONE!!! oh I was so mad... still am obviously but like. Its one of those things that makes me think, Well WHAT ELSE is totally wrong in this book? I just know a lot about the Titanic, there could be other stuff in here that screams bullshit to people who are experts in stuff I don't know about. Anyways.

Well, that's my overall impression after having read this book. The twists were not twisty to me, some of them straight up seemed like stuff we all already knew, but the writing made it seem like it was being revealed to us, the audience, as well as the characters.

Of course, this could be the perfect book for you, I don't know. Different strokes. If you love this, I'm happy for you. But do look up some facts about the Titanic, please. For me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. Water Moon will be published January 14, 2025.

[sakurablossom95 · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the magical, whimsical feelings that you’d love in a Studio Ghibli x Alice in Wonderland feel kind of film wrapped in one book, it especially gave me spirited away vibes and I loved it. The cover art is so beautiful, and the entire premise had me anticipating the release, I can’t believe I got to read this early!

I loved the worldbuilding and all the magical elements present, such as the birds formed by a person’s regret, pearls that can hold one’s memories, puddles that can take you to other places and that time is apparently something that can be traded or brought. I just found those magical elements very fascinating and very whimsical.

The story revolves around a ramen shop that doubles as a pawnshop, but not your average one. Here, you can trade your life choices, your deepest regrets, and even time itself. The concept was so unique and intriguing.
The writing was lyrical and vivid, I could feel myself stepping into this magical world. While the pacing was fast paced, sometimes a bit too fast, it suited the wacky nature of the story. I’ll admit there were moments I wished certain scenes had been expanded, but perhaps leaving some things to the imagination added to the book’s whimsical charm.

Keishin and Hana, the main characters were both beautifully relatable. They’re at a crossroads in their lives, longing for something more, and isn’t that a feeling we’ve all shared? Their chemistry and interactions were enjoyable, though I would have loved an expanded dive into some of their moments together.

Reading this during the Christmas season felt like the perfect choice for me. The cozy, magical whimsical vibes resonated more during this festive time. The Christmas season is generally a time we spend with our families and reflect on the choices we make in life and about forging the future ahead, I think this is what resonated with me while reading it.

Highly recommended if you love stories with whimsical magical adventures. Mostly I just want more people to read this so we can chat about that ending, because it got a bit unexpectedly dark there for a bit towards the end. Lol please go read and come back!

Thank you Del Rey for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

[KalynAbridged · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt like a Studio Ghibli movie specifically Spirited Away but with more romance, and obviously a different plot. But I think the dreaminess and setting of this just really felt like Spirited Away. This is one of those books you could read multiple times and get something different out of it each time. There are so many themes in this and I just think it’s such a unique book and reading experience. It’s definitely a little slower paced and some of the ideas are artistic in the way they are presented. It’s another book I would like to read again in the future and revisit some of the scenes to really understand the meaning behind them.

If you like books that talk about choices and how they can change different situations, as well as regret and loss, just all the big things of humanity, I think you’ll enjoy this.

[Ricarda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book wanted too much. There were so many good ideas presented, but none of them were fleshed out. What was supposed to be a magical journey felt more like a sequence of random scenes that were over before they really started. I wish the story focused more on the pawn shop where you can sell your regrets and explored Hana's world from there. And that PLEASE without any romance, because what kind of unnecessary half-baked instalove was that? More like 2.5 stars.

[Zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

if they need water for their little portals they can look no further than all my fucking TEARS I AM CRYING. HERE TAKE THEM ALL. BE HAPPY. BE FREE. LEAVE ME HERE TO CRY.

[Jaime Fok · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75
This felt like a warm hug! Loved the Ghibli vibes that this gave, and I want them to adapt this into a movie… because my imagination is not good enough to visualize the whimsy of this environment.

Loved the story, loved the writing. The only thing that was off-putting for me was the romance to be honest. I feel like it didn’t have to be there, it’s one of those books that just could have done without it- the story was good enough on its own.

Save this one for a cloudy or rainy day where you just want to cozy up and devour this in one sitting ☔️📚

[Maxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5 stars] A whimsical tale that looks at our destiny versus the choices we make and the impact that has on our lives.

Hana is now the owner of a magical pawnshop in Tokyo, taking over for her recently retired father. The pawnshop appears only to those who need it, allowing them to trade their regrets for a cup of tea that will take the memory of those regrets away. Keishin is a physicist recently returning to his home country of Japan for a new job but filled with longing for a past he didn't get to in experience in the way he'd hoped. One day, their worlds collide and they are set off on an epic adventure to rescue Hana's father and a stolen regret from the pawnshop.

As you might be able to imagine, the creativity of the world Samantha Sotto Yambao has created is so strong. It's filled with such unique elements that truly feel like a grown-up fairytale. The biggest comparison I've seen is that it reminds people of a Studio Ghibli movie, and I 100% agree with that comparison. This too would make a great animated film! I loved the world and the way the plot wove all of these elements together into a really engaging, exciting and plot-twisting story. I was genuinely caught off guard by a few plot elements that came up, which is rare for me.

So while the world building and plot were extremely creative and strong, I thought the characters and writing were lacking. Both Hana and Keishin felt a bit one-note to me, like cardboard cutouts. They had the elements of real, raw characters but it just wasn't expressed in a way that made them very believable. I think as the story goes on and you learn more about them and their situation, it begins to make more sense, but there could've been more done to make them well-rounded from the start. I also thought the dialogue was somewhat unnatural at times, coming across as wooden and not as warm and inviting as the rest of the story. I listened to a bit on audio and I think it translated better there than on the page.

Although I had a few issues with it that brought my rating down, I did overall have a great time with this one and would recommend it to people keeping in mind my few criticisms. If you want a really creative story you can get lost in for a bit and enjoy magical realism and fantasy mixed with contemporary settings, this one would be worth checking out!

[Akankshya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I threw my TBR away the moment I got this ARC, and I was rewarded so well for it. From the very first line, I knew this would be a beautiful read.

This novel put me to sleep - in a good way. It's a whimsical, dream-like fantasy story about a pawnshop and its newest owner. It's about choices, fate, and the cost of regret. Nothing is as it seems in this story. The characters are endearing, and the plot has surprising depth for a cozy fantasy, with some good twists. This one's for the Studio Ghibli and Makoto Shinkai fans.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an eARC of the book in exchange for an honest review!

[Booksblabbering || Cait❣️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a mix of a Studio Ghibli movie and Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

Hana inherits a pawnshop that collects choices. She has never stepped out into the outside world, but when her father goes missing, she is forced to venture outside her comfort zone to search for answers.
She is joined by physics major Keishin who is curious about everything, and when he stumbles into Hana, he is deeply intrigued and wants to help.

This is whimsical, nothing makes sense, and each scene is one where they venture into a new location, dimension, or memory.

“Why did you do it?”
“For the same reason all fools give up good things. We look at our hands and wonder what we could hold if they were empty.”

I think this tried to be philosophical and melancholic, yet was too magical and simplistic and predictable for it to fully achieve this. I love magical realism, but this one felt like it was written to be a Japanese movie rather than a flowing book.

The romance was hard to buy in to and I wasn’t a fan of any of the ‘twists’ per se.

It was a book that felt soft, whimsical, and pondering. I typically don’t tend towards these books, but it was a nice change of pace.
It was sweet and reflective.

Physical arc gifted by Transworld.

Bookstagram

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Outlier. 😢

“Time has no borders except those people make.”

The quote above is the first sentence to the novel. What could it possibly mean in reference to this story? Or living life in general? I really wanted to know.

What I eventually discovered was that this is a story about a pawnshop that deals in regrets by collecting their client’s choices. People may believe they are going to a restaurant for ramen, but end up here at this pawnshop that doesn’t even have a name.

“I was meant to meet you and make this trade.”

So, what happens to these regrets once this exchange is made?

The more I read, the more disconnected I became. If the story was meant to be whimsical, or filled with ‘dream-like’ fantasy and fairy-tales, it just didn’t work for me. It felt dark and unsatisfying with its messy plot, contrived dialogue and one-dimensional characters. Was this a YA romance with time jumping in disguise?

I really wanted to enjoy this one, because I loved this author’s debut novel, “Before Ever After.” And, I was intrigued by this novel’s premise. I am also typically a fan of magical realism. But I had such difficulty connecting to the story and characters that I ended up DNF’ing it after two hours of attempted reading.

I am no doubt an outlier, so please consider other reviews.

[Sarah ♡ (let’s interact!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Life is about finding joy in the space between where you came from and where you are going.'

Water Moon is partly cozy, whimsical, and magical; and also, at times, heartbreaking. This is where the comparisons to Studio Ghibli are coming from. It isn’t a perfect comparison, but it has the charm and heart. The writing is quite simplistic (it has been translated from
Japanese to English), and it can easily be read in one sitting.
There are moments where this magical story takes a darker turn. The characters’ reality can bend, and that’s where the excitement lies.
The world building and premise do outweigh the actual execution of this story, and the main characters are hard to relate to at times. I’m really torn on what to rate this one.

Hana is set to take over her Father’s business upon his retirement; a mysterious and mystical pawnshop. This same days she discovers the shop in ruin, and her Father missing. Enter, Keishin, a man who has just arrived in Tokyo to try and uncover some childhood memories. Only those who feel lost will find the pawnshop, most will only see a ramen restaurant. So, Keishin must be lost within himself, yet he offers Hana help.
What secrets is Hana hiding? Where could her Father be?
The dark and mysterious Shiikuin beings are on their way to collect the deepest regrets of people within 3 days…

Read with the Cozy Seasons book club ❄️🌧️🌲 🫶🖤

3.5 Stars