ARC Review: "Water Moon" by Samantha Sotto Yambao ★★★★

ARC Review: Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

This fantasy mystery novel is a curiously compelling read that transports you beyond this world, for fans of Studio Ghibli, Starless Sea and Before the Coffee Gets Cold with a touch of Alice in Wonderland and Weathering with You. Certainly not lacking in excellent plot twists, but unfortunately in emotional depth which was a pity.

There was something about Hana and her odd stories about tea boxes and treasure hunts that piqued his curiosity, which was something that, outside his lab, had not happened in a very long time. He had met his share of beautiful women, but it was not Hana’s quiet, delicate beauty that made a part of him glad that he had stumbled into her pawnshop by mistake. Just behind the calmness in her eyes lurked the shadows of secrets, peeking out one moment and darting away the next, as though daring him to give chase. And there was nothing Keishin enjoyed more than a good puzzle.

[Contains some spoilers]

PLOT SUMMARY
In Tokyo, there is a normal cosy ramen restaurant – but for a select few in need who step inside, it becomes a pawnshop where you do not trade the usual valuables but your deepest regrets: choices that were made (or not). It is imperative that these choices, once stored away, never leave the shop.

21-year-old Hana Ishikawa will be the new owner of it overnight as her widowed father Toshio plans to retire. The business has been in the family for years, and it is important it forever thrives. The next morning, all is quiet in the store – too quiet. Toshio seems to be gone after what looks like a terrible scuffle where he perhaps went in pursuit of an escaping choice, were it not for a card with a moon over the water, and her mother’s glasses which imply this is staged. On top of that, she believes her father drugged her the night before. She believes that the two cases of her mother’s and father’s disappearance are connected. What’s more, there is evidence her mother is still alive.

At that moment, in stumbles scientist Keishin “Kei” Minatozaki, a man always searching for answers and, unlike all the other clients, offers help instead of seeking it. He gets more than he bargains for when Hana reveals she is from a world beyond ours, causing Keishin to question everything he has ever known.

From jumping into ponds to listening to prayers at the Whispering Temple to crossing the Midnight Bridge in their dreams to stepping into the inked realm to sailing through songs to passing through paper doors to visiting The Valley of Stars that set the night sky to riding literally on rumours, Hana and Kei are in for the greatest adventure they will ever know to find her parents, meeting interesting characters along the way – and staying hidden from the evil Shiikuin.

But all, as Hana keeps telling Kei, is not as it seems. Not even Hana herself.

The fallen blossom cannot return to the branch.
A broken mirror cannot be made to shine.

This is told from mostly the third-person past-tense POV of Hana and Kei, with occasional chapters or sections from other characters’ perspectives.

OVERALL OPINIONS
I think the songs that best match the vibes of the book are Ed Sheeran’s “All of the Stars” and Taylor Swift’s “Wonderland”.

Water Moon is Yambao’s 5th novel and first UK debut. I could tell from the stunning descriptions in the opening chapters that she has a natural gift for storytelling. Take one of the early examples of the descriptions of Hana’s father:

He would not say anything if he caught a mistake. He never did. The slightest twitch of his right eyebrow sufficed. Toshio preferred silence to words, reserving his energy and breath for his clients. Hana had become rather adept at interpreting his quiet breathing, half smiles, and glances.

This description albeit in some ways simple is so effective: the first three sentences convey that he is a silent man before she explicitly tells us this. And it tells us a lot about Hana too: she is also silent yet observant, analytical, calculative.
When Toshio is speaking to the mysterious lady who enters the shop about the pottery with kintsugi, she says that some people hide their damage better than others, and it is spoken “so softly it was as if she were worried that her voice might shatter the bowl” – it captures the essence of the woman here! She is desperate, she feels broken and fragile. Beautiful!

I think the Japanese culture was introduced and explored very well, with mention of the kintsugi technique which repairs broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold (a reminder to embrace imperfections – “Broken things have a unique kind of beauty, don’t you think?”). Hana also feels like if the pawn shop had a name, it would be Ikigai (which is Japanese for “reason for living” or “sense of purpose”). We also have a great paragraph about Studio Ghibli ruining Kei’s experience with buses ever since seeing the Catbus (couldn’t agree more!).

I really love the concept of this story! The different things that make Hana’s world different from ours were unique and reminded me of Alice in Wonderland: like the shells that don’t sound like the ocean but tell jokes instead, crane birds that are made out of paper, prayers that are listened to instead of spoken, trains that are not guaranteed to ever show up, even after 50 years (though, it could be argued that trains not running on time can sometimes feel that way in our world haha) – oh and if you are missing any socks, chances are they or any forgotten things have arrived at stall 510 in the market place. It was a lot of ideas thrown together and, while some are random, it worked rather well. Curiouser and curiouser, indeed.

However, from the moment when Keishin shows up, the beautiful descriptions I mention feel like they vanish and the pacing shifts drastically from slow to fast. Too fast, methinks. The bond between Kei and Hana is really sweet but missing a lot of depth so I didn’t feel for them as much as I’d have liked. I mean, take this example: “Keishin brushed his lips against her wrist. Hana’s cheeks flushed. She pulled her hand away.” This otherwise lovely moment feels super quick and even unrealistic! Surely there could have been more of a time-standing-still moment, how they feel in this moment. Please, don’t give us nothing!

The world-building happens as the reader goes, so we are essentially finding things out at the same time as Kei – which I consider a weaker aspect as there is no history or backstory behind a lot of it. Some thoughts: how did the Whispering Temple come to be? Why is it invisible? How is time folded into paper? It’s just a: this exists, this conveniently happens and that’s that.

Now, don’t get me wrong, let’s look at this from an anime perspective, particularly the likes of Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky) and CoMix Wave Films (Your Name, Weathering with You, Suzume). Most of these films I have listed that these Studios made have straightforward (albeit sometimes confusing) plots with some interesting magical elements and a bond between the male and female love interests that could be considered not that deep just enough to show some chemistry. As far as I am concerned, this follows that sort of blueprint just fine.

The multiple plot twists near the end I wasn’t expecting and they were great, though it took me a moment to get my head around. There were so many I felt like “another one, thank yew” haha.

Overall, this is a 3.5 rounded up to 4. I wish this had spoken to me on a deeper level.

<< Positives >>
🠚The cover is the prettiest thing ever!
🠚Amazing and unique concepts in the plot. I think my favourite places were the ink world and the Valley of the Stars.
🠚Gorgeous descriptions!
🠚Handled and explored Japanese culture with utmost respect
🠚Matches the vibes of anime produced by the likes of Studio Ghibli and CoMix Wave Films
🠚Hana and Kei are really sweet! I love how he is always trying to go out his way to help her.
🠚Incredible plot twists. I didn’t think they’d end haha but they were really good! (I loved the one where Hana’s name is engraved on his wrist, reminded me of the anime Your Name)

<< Negatives >>
🠚Kei and Hana’s relationship did not have enough depth.
🠚The way characters spoke to each other sometimes felt one-dimensional and unrealistic.
🠚Other than the obvious bad guys called the Shiikuin (“caretakers”), nobody was evil. I thought we would have had people who were actually working for them, especially since Hana is always talking about how things are not what they seem. I wondered if Haruto would be considering his initial description of looking “strikingly beautiful”. Yet not a single person snitched or double-crossed them? That’s not very realistic and is a wasted opportunity.
🠚No real action. They keep running and hiding. One of the times I would have loved to have seen a scenario play out is when they are trying to cross the Midnight Bridge back to morning so they can wake up. Hana makes it but she realises the Shiikuin got Kei and “the only way he was going to wake up was if he made it to the other side of the bridge on his own”. He wakes up shortly after this, and we do not see how this happens.
🠚The world-building (specifically lore and backstory) was weak. Things just existed and I would’ve loved to know more about it. I also expected to learn early on why the shop collected the choices, though I appreciate there is a reason it is revealed as it goes.
🠚The writing jumps around back and forth between years which I would have preferred less of.
🠚Anticlimactic ending. Like, Hana goes through so much, finds her parents and it’s just not the reunion she hopes for. I also felt that way, like the journey is not worth it. And then Kei’s reunion with his mother is also rather shallow and he doesn’t tell her who he is, yet they have reconnected 5 years from that. I would’ve loved to have been filled in about that.

CHARACTERS
-ˋˏ ꒰ Hana꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ Truth be told, I don’t know what to make of her haha. She seems sweet but could be flat at times, also sometimes reserved and cold, doesn’t reveal a lot to Kei and I don’t think he should’ve forgiven her when she does reveal it haha. That was insane!
🠚She is so intelligent though, I liked learning some of the workings of her mind through the flashback of the treasure hunt for example. 🠚Also, I thought at first from this description she had literally got a shard of glass and stabbed him and I was prepared to throw the book: It was almost funny how his strange adventure with Hana began and ended with broken glass. When they met, Hana had cut her foot on one of the broken pieces littered across the pawnshop. Now she had stabbed him with the sharpest of them in his back.
🠚Her parents put her through so much, and she loses essentially everyone – and that really sucked.

“It’s raining.” “What’s new?” Keishin led Hana outside and ran into the downpour. “It’s just the weather telling us that we don’t belong here.” “Or maybe, all this time, it’s been trying to tell us something else.” Hana held his rain- streaked face. “Like what?” Keishin brought his lips next to hers. “That we belong to each other.”

-ˋˏ ꒰ Kei꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ I love him! He was so sweet and kind. His mother abandoning him and the girl he loves manipulating him feels heartbreaking to me. He loses his mentor Ramesh but I liked the idea he could visit him in his mind.
🠚He cannot stay still, but I love that the person who makes him want to is Hana, that was a touching moment that I wish we got more of in this story. I love his sense of humour too, “I’m a doctor. The useless kind”.

“I told you, Hana. I see you. Only you.”

-ˋˏ ꒰ Other characters꒱ ˎˊ-
↳ Haruto has to be actually the character that struck me the most. Talk about a character who deserved the world: I have never felt more sorry or sad for a character in my life. The gorgeous man with incredible talents, the unrequited love, the sacrifice he makes anyway, the way he is going to get his memories erased but instead prefers to die remembering her. So tragic, yet so beautiful: the man who folded time back for the woman who did not love him back – and her father who condemned him to a life hardly worth living.
🠚 Haruto, you made reading this book worth it but we need to get you a happy ending, my poor man. Give him a love interest he can be with instead – I volunteer as tribute, move Hana!
🠚 Oh and gosh, the quote – the most arguably romantic in all the book!!

“I did not wake up and suddenly feel that I loved you. The only answer I can give you is that it happened gradually. Slowly, and unnoticed, the way the ocean turns rocks into sand. And you are an ocean, Hana. Gentle and quiet, yet powerful enough to sweep away any man or ship. I drowned in you a long time ago and I did not even know it.“

🠚Fumiko from the Valley of the Stars is so lovely, bless her!

FAV QUOTES
• “Losing your way is oftentimes the only way to find something you did not know you were looking for.”
• In a morning filled with the unusual, this woman was the most extraordinary of it all. There was a calmness in the way she spoke, a steadiness he did not expect from a person in her circumstances. Her large brown eyes mirrored her quiet composure, filled with something he had long desired for himself. An absolute certainty of purpose.
• “Kyouka suigetsu,” Keishin whispered to himself. Mirror flower, water moon. … When Keishin asked her why she liked painting reflections, she told him that it was because the most desirable things were the ones that you could see, but never touch.
• Her name in his mouth was a dangerous thing. She imagined how his lips might shape its syllables and how his voice might turn them into a stream of honey wine. Sweet drinks were the worst traitors. You drowned in them with a smile.
• “I’m beginning to think that nothing will ever make sense again.” | “Things don’t have to make sense for them to be real.”
• Stars were interesting but did not hold his attention. In life, as in science, he was more drawn to the unseen. And he had never met a person with more secrets than Hana. He didn’t mind that she kept them. He was used to it. The universe was like that too. It hid its most compelling secrets behind clouds of nothing and noise.
• all he saw was the halo of calm in Hana’s eyes and his face staring back at him from her irises. He envied his reflection. It could go where he could not. He wondered how many of Hana’s secrets it knew, a privilege he doubted he was ever going to share.
• In reality, it was the choices that people didn’t even realize they were making that set the course of their lives. The shifts were small, even minute, but, by the tiniest of angles, they pointed one in the direction of what was going to happen next.
• “They say that hopes about children are the most colorful, hopes about health the brightest, hopes about happiness the prettiest, and hopes about love the most difficult to paint.”
• Before he could retreat into any dream, he would have to endure restless hours staring at a smile that was never meant for him.
• He wanted a woman he barely knew, knowing full well that he was not capable of the same sacrifice the man who truly loved her had given. But still, he wanted her. As much as he wanted to know the stars and all their secrets. Maybe more.
• “A cartographer can craft the most detailed map, include every landmark, and draw the clearest roads. His map can help you get to almost anywhere you wish. Bridges. Parks. Libraries. But not home. You won’t find it labeled on a single map in the entire world.”
• Hana had never met a man more unaware of how he filled the space around him, charging the air. The streak of lightning in his hair made her believe that if the moon disappeared and darkness swallowed them, he alone would remain lit.
• “That is what happens when words are left unsaid. It does not matter how beautiful they are. In time, everything rots.”
• “Arriving at one’s destination is never promised. Only the journey is. Waiting is part of that journey.”

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I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank Samantha Sotto Yambao, Random House UK, and NetGalley for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

“Water Moon” is out January 16th!