“Losing your way is oftentimes the only way to find something you did not know you were looking for.”
How Water Moon managed to be so whimsically nonsensical yet relatably human will forever remain a mystery to me, but Samantha Sotto Yambao absolutely nailed the dreamlike vibes of this romantic magical adventure. It’s a tender and mysterious tale of choices, of fate, of family, and of the cost of regret, but most of all, it’s a tale of love in all its devastating beauty.
As someone who probably spends way too much time regretting the past and worrying about the future, the idea of a story revolving around a magical pawn shop where you can pawn off your regrets immediately spoke to me. But while Water Moon absolutely delivers on that premise, it also turned out to be so much more than that.
See, we follow Hana after she inherits the magical pawn shop from her father, but her first day could not have been more disastrous if she tried: the shop is ravaged, her father is missing, and her first client, an enigmatic yet charming stranger from another realm, quite insistently invites himself onto her mission to uncover the truth behind this confounding mystery; a mystery that is soon revealed to span multiple decades, lives and realms.
Now, let me tell you, I think neither they nor I could ever have prepared for the fever dreamlike weirdness that is contained within the pages of Water Moon. From jumping into puddles to teleport, to being folded to a new location, to getting your life path tattooed in blue ink which only appears when your skin gets wet, to flying paper cranes made of regrets, to floating markets in the clouds, and to bottles of sand that hold lost time… the creative madness just bleeds off every page; Alice’s Wonderland almost starts to seem like a boringly normal place after getting a glimpse into Samantha Sotto Yamboa’s wonderfully wild imagination.
If all that didn’t give it away, Water Moon requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief to enjoy, and that extends to the development of the characters and their interpersonal relationships. For me, the intoxicating and almost insta-lovey dynamic between Hana and Kei just absolutely worked with the vibes of this story, and I loved experiencing all the wonders of this magical Japanese folklore-inspired realm through their contrasting insider and outsider perspectives.
That said, I personally did feel like the fast pacing and heavy focus on the rich world building distracted maybe a tiny bit from the character development, and I ultimately ended up only really connecting on a deeper level to Kei and his emotional journey. Moreover, I think the balance between the wonderfully whimsical tone and the more hard-hitting and darkly melancholy aspects sometimes just felt a bit off, which made the ending feel slightly rushed and some of the supposedly shocking revelations fall a bit flat for me personally.
Still, those minor quibbles didn’t hold me back from absolutely devouring this gem of a story, and I can’t deny that the journey was more than worth it. If you are in the mood for a Ghibli-esque introspective yet action-packed magical fantasy mystery adventure full of lush and imaginative world building, soul-stirring emotion, and the most tender star-crossed lovers romance, then I can’t recommend Water Moon highly enough.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House, UK for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Water Moon is scheduled for release on 16 January, 2025.
