ARC Review: Mooncakes

Title: Mooncakes
Author: Suzanne Walker, Wendy Xu (Artist)
Pages: 256
Published by: Lion Forge
Release date: 15th October 2019
Synopsis:
A story of love and demons, family and witchcraft.

Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town.

One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any town home.

Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.

Pre-order from: Amazon | Book Depository | Waterstones

Firstly, thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of Mooncakes to review via Netgalley!

Review:

I’ve only read two other graphic novels so am still fairly new to them, but Mooncakes was a great further introduction! This book was so cute and heart-warming, diverse and absolutely PERFECT for autumn.

Mooncakes follows Nova, a witch who lives with her grandmothers and works in their bookshop (which, can you imagine a better setting than an autumnal bookshop?! I know I can’t) and Tam, a werewolf who stumbles back into town unexpectedly. Nova also has hearing difficulties and Tam in non-binary, two things that I haven’t seen represented often enough, and it was really wonderful to see. The romance between Nova and Tam was so sweet and it was so cute to see how they were so incredibly supportive of each other. Nova’s friendship with Tatyana was equally as strong and supportive and I really enjoyed how the theme of family is a big part of this novel, too. Nova had such a good relationship with her grandmothers and even though the rest of her family were only in a few scenes, the relationships conveyed were still really complex and enjoyable.

I’ve basically been excited for autumn and Halloween since the moment the clock struck 12 on the 1st of September, so this novel was the perfect story to hype me up even more for the season. I can’t get over how great the artwork was — it did a really great job of conveying these characters and the emotions and experiences they go through, all the while maintaining the magic of the season. And the CATS dotted around, I had so much fun just noticing the smaller details like the black cats that crept into the scenes.

With its themes of love, friendship, family, and the fact that magic is at the heart of it all, Mooncakes is the perfect book to warm your heart while the weather outside starts to cool down. In all, this book made me so much more excited for autumn than I already was and the only issue I had was that I wanted it to be longer!

Rating: ★★★★