You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by brogan7
Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
adventurous
challenging
dark
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
3.25
Wow. Yeah. Mind-blowing.
Liked:
-the fantasy
-the world-building
-the Shiikuin (creepy as they were).
Disliked:
-the love story never worked for me. Not for one second.
-The roller-coaster ride at the end. Unnecessarily complicated, and not believable anyway. But apart from that, if there's one thing about us free-will-Westerners, it's that we want the fated events to come true.
-The pacing: absolutely terrible. Too fast when it's too fast, too slow when it's too slow
-The absolute, 100% lack of insight into Kei's motivations and interest in Hana. I actually liked Hana's character. She was interesting and focussed (although we didn't always know her motivations), but Kei? "I want to sacrifice my life for you from the moment I meet you"? I actually think he'd be more believable if he was just into her physically and he didn't really care how long it lasted or about sacrificing himself (male saviour persona be damned). Like, it could have made for some funny moments if he'd gone, even once: "oh my god, this isn't worth it. Why are they cutting a pearl out of my wrist?"
I enjoyed the fantasy, the magical worlds, the actual reading of it.
It felt like the author had a lot of ideas but wasn't emotionally invested in the story. It's a story of ideas and not characters.
Put me in mind of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern--if you liked that, you'll likely like this.
I wanted an alternate ending, as well.I wanted Hana and Kei to get together, but then to part. That she would live out her fate with Haruto...[the one-year thing seemed stupid to me, lose that.] And that Kei and Hana would both be ok. Or alternately, in the 'dark' version, she could trade in Kei...but then doesn't that make it an anti-choice book? Yeah. And then that's gross.
Liked:
-the fantasy
-the world-building
-the Shiikuin (creepy as they were).
Disliked:
-the love story never worked for me. Not for one second.
-The roller-coaster ride at the end. Unnecessarily complicated, and not believable anyway. But apart from that, if there's one thing about us free-will-Westerners, it's that we want the fated events to come true.
-The pacing: absolutely terrible. Too fast when it's too fast, too slow when it's too slow
-The absolute, 100% lack of insight into Kei's motivations and interest in Hana. I actually liked Hana's character. She was interesting and focussed (although we didn't always know her motivations), but Kei? "I want to sacrifice my life for you from the moment I meet you"? I actually think he'd be more believable if he was just into her physically and he didn't really care how long it lasted or about sacrificing himself (male saviour persona be damned). Like, it could have made for some funny moments if he'd gone, even once: "oh my god, this isn't worth it. Why are they cutting a pearl out of my wrist?"
I enjoyed the fantasy, the magical worlds, the actual reading of it.
It felt like the author had a lot of ideas but wasn't emotionally invested in the story. It's a story of ideas and not characters.
Put me in mind of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern--if you liked that, you'll likely like this.
I wanted an alternate ending, as well.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Dementia, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Gore
TW: anti-choice