Water Moon, by Samantha Sotto Yambao, is not the kind of book I would normally pick up. I’m all for plots that revolve around choices and people having to reflect on whether they made the correct ones. But a story that centered on the romantic journey of two strangers as they wade through a world built on regret? It took a little bit of effort to break out of the science fiction fortress I had built up recently. But one of my goals was to tear down those walls, even a little bit, and Water Moon made an impression.
Hana is about to inherit her father’s pawnshop. This is no ordinary pawnbroker, as he trades for people’s past regrets. The only way one can enter the shop is if they are in need of unburdening. The morning after her father retires, Hana wakes up to the shop in disarray. As she is trying to clean up, looking for clues as to where he may have gone, Keishin opens the door. Instead of asking for help himself, he offers to help Hana unravel the mystery of her father’s disappearance before he is found by the horrifying spirits that govern Hana’s world.
Right off the bat, Water Moon just hits you with waves of whimsy and it instantly pulled me in with its riptide. I enjoyed that it felt fanciful while dealing with deep, introspective issues. The book didn’t make light of the fact that people carried around the weight of their choices. It engages with them with a sincerity that some might find overwhelming, but I was totally open to. It helps that Yambao’s prose perfectly captures the weight of everything. It’s filled with metaphor, focusing on the feelings the characters express instead of the actions they are taking. The opening scene is allowed to breathe freely, giving the reader a window into a woman weighing the possibility of trading her choice made decades ago for a box of tea and the weight lifted off her shoulders. It was the perfect tonal framing that sets up the rest of the story.
The two leads are my kind of leads. The girl from a whimsical world that is grounded in the harsh rules that govern her kind and a scientist boy just waiting to be taken on a journey that shatters reality. It was such a good pairing because it sort of knocks against some of the tropes I am used to from Western 2010s romantic comedies about boys saved by manic pixie dream girls. Hana feels resigned to her fate but manages to buck against it in small ways. She has a headstrong mentality that rubber bands between knocking down the walls that hold her in and pushing against the insane ideas offered by Keishin. It makes her feel like someone who has been hemmed in and needs to escape but is unsure about her abilities to defy fate. I found myself enamored by her straightforward attitude that revealed the rules that governed her world. She was stubborn but open in an odd mixture that peeled back the contradictions of her realm.
And Keishin is my sweet summer man. Nothing hits like an educated man who understands the rules of the universe but is constantly searching for his mind to be blown. I think part of it is a projection of sorts since I am constantly looking for something to tear away the wallpaper of our world to discover the secrets we’ve pasted over. But Keishin is just so goddamned stubborn in his need to help Hana find her father. He was the perfect foil to Hana in the sense that he shared some similar qualities, but the parts where they differed caused the romantic and narrative tension. He was cute and sometimes exhibited the ideal qualities of a himbo imbued with the knowledge of high-level physics. The trips into his mind to talk with the ghost of his mentor were fun and heartwarming. He was someone who was open to the strands of fate and ziplined on them so hard and fast his weight bent them ever so slightly.
The two of them paired together was like peanut butter and jelly. It was invigorating to watch them dance. The push and pull of their budding relationship felt natural. There weren’t moments of forced miscommunication to string you along. It was the natural forces of their personalities and the tension of what they wanted vs what they expected that carried the day. And you smash that together with a story about a world fueled by the regrets of another; it makes for a whimsical yet grounded tale of love. Water Moon is bedazzled with aphorisms, anecdotes and pieces of, for lack of a better term, eastern philosophy. At times it could maybe be a little saccharine, but I often found my heart and throat tightening over the bittersweet revelations. It made the romantic elements hit that much harder because fate felt arrayed against the two in ways that most stories bungle. I genuinely wanted them to find a way to be together.
And while the romance does feel front and center, it’s not the only good part of Water Moon. It is filled with some sad stories and some happy ones. The search for Hana’s father uncovers the many demons that populate their realm. How the choices they have stolen and the choices they made have their own repercussions. And where Water Moon takes you is unexpected, much to my delight. Now, that may be because my romantic reading muscles are not worked out very well, but still, I had a blast.
Water Moon, by Samantha Sotto Yambao, was a real delight in these turbulent times. It didn’t spirit me away from the real world, but I don’t think that was its goal. It felt very deliberately grounded in the fact that our choices can hurt people, including our own selves. It was a pleasant romance with two leads that I would easily fight and die for. So if you’re looking for a little magic, a little philosophy and watching two stubborn people dance for each other, you can’t go wrong with Water Moon.
Rating: Water Moon Fall into the deceptively deep pond that is this book.
-Alex
An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.
