Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

Thanks Random House and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy of this book.
Wow, what a book! I feel utterly privileged to have been accepted for a NetGalley ARC of Water Moon, because I am completely changed having read it. Water Moon is an ethereal, dreamlike magical realism story set in a backstreet in Tokyo. Here lies a magical pawnshop where the chosen ones – those that feel lost – can pawn life choices and deepest regrets. Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the new owner of the family pawnshop, only to find her father missing and the shop’s most precious item missing. But in walks a charming stranger and together they journey through ponds, puddles and night markets in the clouds to find her father.
Sotto Yambao’s dreamlike prose is thoroughly enchanting and beautifully evocative. Every sentence feels threaded with magic, and she conjures up theatrical dreamscapes and parallel universes with ease. Hana is a great protagonist with a real grip on her alternate world, making the world-building feel natural, easy but expansive all at the same time. Keishin plays a great antithesis to her, and the juxtaposition between Hana’s ethereal ways and his logical, scientific mind make a great running thread. I love the magic system and the simple, magnetic romance that blossoms. Perhaps I too could become a romance reader if all stories were like this.
Woven with Hayao Miyazaki-like eccentricity and charm, I completely adored this book and cannot stop raving about it!