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chrissy22's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
A whimsical, Studio Ghibli vibe throughout. The world-building was descriptive enough that I could picture everything. The writing was lyrical. I did think the characters and their growth could’ve been more fleshed out and their development more poignant. I feel it could have had more adult themes when it came to development. I also deducted points for it being insta-love. It happened way too quickly without any build or struggle which made this, along with not enough risk taken for character development, feel more YA than adult. I also thing climax and main conflict could’ve been more fleshed out given how it was so centered throughout the plot. A lot happened off page.
Overall, did really enjoy this book. It was magical.
Overall, did really enjoy this book. It was magical.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cancer and Abortion
afrenette's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, and Grief
Minor: Abortion
stephaniecommerer's review against another edition
adventurous
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I'd like to thank Samantha Sotto Yambao, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Water Moon follows Hana, a young woman left in charge of a pawn shop after her father's retirement. Unlike other pawnshops this place deals in regrets and choices. The morning Hana goes to open her shop for the first time as the new owner she finds it ransacked, her father and a choice gone, and so she decides she must find him, with the help of Kei, a young man who walked into her store.
It promises the charm of a Studio Ghibli movie and Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikaszu Kawaguchi, however it's unlike either of those. You can tell the author had some amazing magical realism ideas, but the worldbuilding lacked so much detail that it began to seem random when things were introduced, or akin to shock value. There were no titles for her world or Kei's world, but there were titles for a lot of what seemed to be unimportant things for the story. Things are briefly brought up and never mentioned again, and when the lore is mentioned, due to Kei being from the human world he acts as a reason to info dump for the reader to learn some information.
Speaking of Kei and Hana, there was an extremely forced romance between the two. They had no chemistry and the love between them was generally instant as they only know each other for 2 days by the end of the book. There was no real reason for it to be there, and was one of the reasons I thought about DNFing this book. The author also has a way of writing that I think others may enjoy but I did not, the introduction of Japanese words spelled out with English letters and then repeated as a question translated by another character, it got old very quickly. The dialogue was very stilted and awkward and seemed to try to be very quotable and deep, I think she shouldn't have tried so hard to sound profound since I did like the quotes Hana and her father said before the love interest was introduced, which is where I think most of the faults start. There are a lot of one liner sentences that give a dun dun dun feeling at the break of a chapter or at the end of chapters.
I think if this book had more time to rest, be edited and worked on just a bit more it could've been a lot more like what it was advertised to be. It's also very likely that this book will find is audience among romantasy readers and other people that sadly aren't me.
Trigger Warnings I Gathered: cancer, parent death, some sexual content, injury detail, dementia
Water Moon follows Hana, a young woman left in charge of a pawn shop after her father's retirement. Unlike other pawnshops this place deals in regrets and choices. The morning Hana goes to open her shop for the first time as the new owner she finds it ransacked, her father and a choice gone, and so she decides she must find him, with the help of Kei, a young man who walked into her store.
It promises the charm of a Studio Ghibli movie and Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikaszu Kawaguchi, however it's unlike either of those. You can tell the author had some amazing magical realism ideas, but the worldbuilding lacked so much detail that it began to seem random when things were introduced, or akin to shock value. There were no titles for her world or Kei's world, but there were titles for a lot of what seemed to be unimportant things for the story. Things are briefly brought up and never mentioned again, and when the lore is mentioned, due to Kei being from the human world he acts as a reason to info dump for the reader to learn some information.
Speaking of Kei and Hana, there was an extremely forced romance between the two. They had no chemistry and the love between them was generally instant as they only know each other for 2 days by the end of the book. There was no real reason for it to be there, and was one of the reasons I thought about DNFing this book. The author also has a way of writing that I think others may enjoy but I did not, the introduction of Japanese words spelled out with English letters and then repeated as a question translated by another character, it got old very quickly. The dialogue was very stilted and awkward and seemed to try to be very quotable and deep, I think she shouldn't have tried so hard to sound profound since I did like the quotes Hana and her father said before the love interest was introduced, which is where I think most of the faults start. There are a lot of one liner sentences that give a dun dun dun feeling at the break of a chapter or at the end of chapters.
I think if this book had more time to rest, be edited and worked on just a bit more it could've been a lot more like what it was advertised to be. It's also very likely that this book will find is audience among romantasy readers and other people that sadly aren't me.
Trigger Warnings I Gathered: cancer, parent death, some sexual content, injury detail, dementia
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer and Death of parent
Moderate: Dementia and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content
katebrownreads's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
a magical book about a pawn shop where you can sell your regrets. An odd day leads to a missing father, a strange new customer, and an adventure to solve the mystery and find her father. Primarily a fantasy, a little cozy (but not at times), and some romance. Loved the book! It had some twists I didnt see coming and totally held my attention the whole book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Abortion and Pregnancy
sleepyreaderthings's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Water Moon is an absolutely whimsical book with a cast of characters that would fit in a Studio Ghibli movie perfectly. I couldn’t have asked for a better story when it comes to reading my first ARC.
“Scars don’t make you any less than what you are. They are simply stories”
“It was easier to chew on misery if you did not know what happiness tasted like”
Set in two distinct worlds, the story follows Hana, from the, for lack of a better word, magical world, and Keishin, from our current day world. Keishin stumbles into what he thought was a ramen shop only to discover he walked into a pawnshop that has been ransacked. He soon finds out that it isn’t a normal shop, and instead of trading jewelry and collectibles, this pawnshop trades choices and regrets. He soon discovers that this world he has stumbled into defies all the laws of science that governs his own world. This is a quest-based story that follows Hana and Keishin as they run around searching for Hana’s father who has mysteriously disappeared.
In this story, we follow our characters as they fly in a sky of paper cranes, jump through puddles and land in a different location, and are folded into paper to get from point A to B. But we also hear about grief and stories of loss. I cried hearing about Keishin’s father and what cancer did to him. I deeply relate to the language that was used in describing how terrible cancer is and what it does to one’s body. Seeing what it does to your dad: “The man in the coffin was going to look like a stranger either way. Cancer had made a feast of his father, gnawing at him until all that was left was skin and bones.” While this was a relatively small part of the story, it had such a big impact on me. I saw myself in Keishin and how he has coped not only with the death of his father but also with how he has faced other deaths like his mentor’s. Grief is crazy, and it can result in coping mechanisms that you wouldn’t expect. I think grief was a common theme throughout this story, whether it was about a parent dying or a relationship ending. We saw characters ask, “How can you be at peace if a part of you is missing? It will be a hole that you will try to fill all your life without ever knowing why that hole exists in the first place.” And the the story also touched on the flip side of things, when someone isn’t dead: “I wish I could grieve you. Grieving ends. But I can’t grieve. You’re not dead.”
While I’ve highlighted some heavier topics that this story covered, I also want to say that it was fun and fast-paced. I loved the short chapters! I didn’t spend all my time crying or being sad—quite the opposite actually. There were so many dumb lines that had me laughing, with this one being a top moment:
“‘We will not walk into any trap.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Because we will be swimming into it.’”
There was romance and friendship mixed in with everything else in this story, and honestly my only critique is that I wish it had been more slow burn. I felt a connection between Hana and Keishin, but I would have loved a longer timeline. Granted, that isn’t super realistic considering most of this happens in what, a week maybe? I can’t take points off though because the story just made me feel so much in every other aspect. Definitely a book to remember, and I wm excited to see a physical copy once this releases!
“Scars don’t make you any less than what you are. They are simply stories”
“It was easier to chew on misery if you did not know what happiness tasted like”
Set in two distinct worlds, the story follows Hana, from the, for lack of a better word, magical world, and Keishin, from our current day world. Keishin stumbles into what he thought was a ramen shop only to discover he walked into a pawnshop that has been ransacked. He soon finds out that it isn’t a normal shop, and instead of trading jewelry and collectibles, this pawnshop trades choices and regrets. He soon discovers that this world he has stumbled into defies all the laws of science that governs his own world. This is a quest-based story that follows Hana and Keishin as they run around searching for Hana’s father who has mysteriously disappeared.
In this story, we follow our characters as they fly in a sky of paper cranes, jump through puddles and land in a different location, and are folded into paper to get from point A to B. But we also hear about grief and stories of loss. I cried hearing about Keishin’s father and what cancer did to him. I deeply relate to the language that was used in describing how terrible cancer is and what it does to one’s body. Seeing what it does to your dad: “The man in the coffin was going to look like a stranger either way. Cancer had made a feast of his father, gnawing at him until all that was left was skin and bones.” While this was a relatively small part of the story, it had such a big impact on me. I saw myself in Keishin and how he has coped not only with the death of his father but also with how he has faced other deaths like his mentor’s. Grief is crazy, and it can result in coping mechanisms that you wouldn’t expect. I think grief was a common theme throughout this story, whether it was about a parent dying or a relationship ending. We saw characters ask, “How can you be at peace if a part of you is missing? It will be a hole that you will try to fill all your life without ever knowing why that hole exists in the first place.” And the the story also touched on the flip side of things, when someone isn’t dead: “I wish I could grieve you. Grieving ends. But I can’t grieve. You’re not dead.”
While I’ve highlighted some heavier topics that this story covered, I also want to say that it was fun and fast-paced. I loved the short chapters! I didn’t spend all my time crying or being sad—quite the opposite actually. There were so many dumb lines that had me laughing, with this one being a top moment:
“‘We will not walk into any trap.’
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘Because we will be swimming into it.’”
There was romance and friendship mixed in with everything else in this story, and honestly my only critique is that I wish it had been more slow burn. I felt a connection between Hana and Keishin, but I would have loved a longer timeline. Granted, that isn’t super realistic considering most of this happens in what, a week maybe? I can’t take points off though because the story just made me feel so much in every other aspect. Definitely a book to remember, and I wm excited to see a physical copy once this releases!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer and Grief
carolyn_baird_'s review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol