Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao – Review

Published: January 14, 2025

Publisher: Del Rey

Series: N/A

Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism

Pages: 374 (Kindle)

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:
A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical journey when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike and enchanting fantasy novel.

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see a cozy ramen restaurant. And only 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 its 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—by way of rain puddles, rides on paper cranes, the bridge between midnight and morning, and 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 that she will never be able to take back.

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It seems like translated works about hidden pawnshops, markets, or cafes have really been trendy lately and I really succumbed to the temptation to try something new. Water Moon is the second book of this sort that I’ve picked up and well, I liked it a bit more than the first book of this sort I picked up. I know, it’s not exactly glowing praise, but it was an interesting read and outside of my usual.

Water Moon follows a young woman named Hana Ishikawa who has just taken ownership of her father’s magical pawnshop after his retirement. Shockingly, Hana wakes to find the shop ransacked and the most recent memory acquisition missing. As Hana is observing the mess, a young man named Keishin stumbles in thinking he’s about to get a nice hot cup of ramen but instead finds a Hana in need of help. The two begin investigating the mysterious break-in and it appears that Hana’s father Toshio has staged the mess and disappeared with the memory in an attempt to protect Hana from the beings that collect the memories pawned at the shop.

The story gets more magical as it progresses and the reader learns more of this world. Hana is not from our world and the pawnshop is in another world entirely. When Kei stumbles in to help and not to simply pawn a memory (actually a soul fragment) he upsets the balance that has so long been maintained. As Hana and Kei search for Toshio the world really opens up and it is truly strange and magical, and very different from what I’m used to seeing in fantasy books, likely because I’ve read almost no Japanese fantasy. There are many lessons woven into these pages on roles in life, the importance of choices, and sacrifice. I will give warning that this isn’t a particularly cozy story and there are some darker moments that might shock those expecting something cute and cozy.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but somewhere along the lines it fell just a bit flat for me. I think this is partially due to my limited exposure to Japanese fantasy and its inherent stylistic differences from a more euro-centric fantasy and partially due to me not being drawn to magical realism. So much of this is focused on duty and predetermined roles in life that the characters feel almost fated to follow these paths and even the emotional bits felt a bit dulled to me. I’m seeing tons of 5 star reviews for Water Moon, so this is more a case of it’s not the book, it’s me. If it sounds interesting to you, I highly encourage you to check it out!