Review by sarahmore_books - Water Moon

sarahmore_books 's review for:

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

4.25

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I absolutely adored the literary style and dreamy setting! I think the plot and characters were just tools to explore this world, but I liked them too! Read this if you're in the mood for a reflective and otherworldly novel.

My understanding of the meaning of "water moon":

the thing that appears obtainable but is out of reach like a reflection of the moon in water, the reflection perhaps even trapped within the puddle (trapped in its fate) instead of in the sky; it represents the desire for impossible or even unimaginable choices. The most desirable things can be seen but are beyond reach and beyond the known, as in Keishin's search for scientific answers to his boundless questions and his inability to understand and put words to his feelings for Hana. It may also refer to the recurring theme that things are not as they seem. Finally, Hana's path was fated to end in "a moon in the water."

Themes: freedom, fate, choice, regret, curiosity, everything is not as it seems

Style (1): Amazingly beautiful writing! Very literary and I highlighted several passages to revisit to simply appreciate the lyricism of them.

Plot (0.75): It was a tiny bit confusing at the beginning, but that's to be expected with the style of the story. Pretty quickly, you learn to stop expecting and just ride the wave of the unexpected. "Everything is not as it seems" and things work very differently in Hana's world. It felt like nearly every chapter introduced us to a new magical strangeness that does not fit our natural laws. I felt like I was in a dream the whole time I was reading it, even though there is some action and tension as well. Most of the book is spent unraveling a mystery. There were also two delicious plot twists.
However, there was one notable contradiction.

The book claims: "College. Marriage. Kids. These were the big decisions that people believed mattered. They were wrong, of course. In reality, it was the choices that people didn't even realize they were making that set the course of their lives" (p. 179), but one of these big decisions are the very choices explored later in the story: kids.

Atmosphere/Setting (1): The setting was my favourite part of the book. Everything was so different from our world yet it was described in ways that I could picture it all perfectly. It evoked imagery that I fell in love with. Everything had a truly magical quality to it, in a sense different from usual fantasy. It felt like a story whispered in the clouds, despite some more sinister (but not scary) elements.

Characters (0.5): There was insta-love between the two main characters. It wasn't a gross sort of insta-love, but rather one driven by similarities between the characters as well as the curious newness each saw in the other. I'm honestly still undecided whether I liked their love story or if I would have wished for more buildup. Ideally, I would have liked more because they actually only knew each other for a few days!
Hana was a fairly evasive character (whose reasons made sense by the end) while Keishin was honest and helpful. They shared similarities explained later in the book, but they had very different motivations for going on this journey to unravel a mysterious disappearance.
However, Hana's father seemed to me to behave incongruously to his character

(especially on p. 318 compared to p. 302, in the same conversation)

.
All of the briefly encountered side characters felt real and unique, each with their own backstories!
(Also, Haruto... what a guy. He deserved requited love!)

Enjoyment (1): I highly enjoyed reading this book! The ending was unexpected and had some incongruences of character and of claims, but overall, it was a great read!

Content Warnings