Magical Realism

Book Review: THE FULL MOON COFFEE SHOP by Mai Mochizuki, translated by Jesse Kirkwood

| Jessica Crawford

The Full Moon Coffee Shop is a Japanese novella in translation that was originally published in 2020.

From the synopsis: “In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they’ll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon.”

This is a sweet, cozy story that also manages to be thought-provoking and inspiring.

A substitute teacher and the group of students she would walk home at the end of the school day once showed great kindness to some cats. Now, years later, the Full Moon Coffee Shop shows up for each of them. The coffee shop is run by speaking cats who can change into human form, and who are each named after a different astrological body. They choose specific food and drink tailored to each customer, and offer to read their star charts. In this way, the cats of the coffee shop are able to help each of these former schoolmates understand what is holding them back in life, and how to get back on course. There are lessons on being less hard on oneself and others, improving one’s state of mind and focus by making one’s surroundings more pleasant, admitting one’s true desires to oneself, and more. It’s a very nice story!

I am not 100% sure about the English translation of this book, as there were some idioms that miss the mark – although I suppose it’s possible these are expressions used in the UK and not the US and so I’m just not familiar with them (just as the book uses the British English term “anticlockwise” rather than the American English “counterclockwise”). Things like “plumping for a suit” , “looking pretty flash”, “splashing out on” the fancy dishes, and referring to singles (as in romantically unattached people) as singletons. I was a bit worried when the book opens with a male tortoiseshell cat, which, while not impossible, is unlikely (1 in 3000 tortoiseshell cats are male, and that’s because they are born with an extra X chromosome). Although I suppose it’s certainly not less likely that the cat will also be the physical form of a heavenly body come to bestow wisdom on people who have earned favors by being good to cats!

This is not the kind of book that will keep me thinking about it for a long time to come, but it IS the kind of book that gave me warm fuzzy feelings while also offering opportunities for introspection. 3.5 stars

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Book Review: THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS by Katherine Arden

| Jessica Crawford
A new standalone historical fantasy novel by the author of The Winternight Trilogy

This an emotional and harrowing story about World War I, the physical and emotional toll it took on individuals as well as the changes it wrought on civilization itself. In some ways, this war marked the end of the world–and the start of a new one.

The chapters of this book alternate between following combat nurse Laura in 1918, and her brother Freddie beginning the year prior, before the army sent her his effects saying that he was missing and presumed dead. Laura decides to return to the field to attempt to discover what happened to her brother.

Freddie’s chapters are heart wrenching, and the bond he forms with another soldier when the two have only each other left was very touching. The nightmare these people are living is what allows the author to introduce her signature mythological/magical realism seasoning to the story. It begs the question, “Was remembered agony better than feeling nothing at all?” and allows Arden to address the idea she puts into words in the Author’s Note: “What would a devil of the old world do if he found himself in the hell of a new one?” War stole away the pleasure of shattering human hearts.

This story was full of great characters, from the indomitable Laura herself, to German soldier Hans Winter, and the genteel woman whose “bright sweet nature” may be hiding the true darkness of her own grief. (I’m not sure I found Freddie that likable, but the whole point is that after the things he’s been through, there’s not much left to like or not).

The book ends with things wrapped up a little too pat for Laura, but overall I was pleased with this historical fantasy with its heavy and moving themes.

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Book Review: THE BULLET SWALLOWER by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

| Jessica Crawford

The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Pride has ruined me far more than disease,” he said, “and so I fear it has ruined you.”


Wow! I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this Western (not a genre I feel any particular way about) laden with magical realism (which can be hit or miss for me), but I loved this book!

The author’s great-grandfather was a bandido who escaped from a prison in Texas, survived being shot in the face by Texas Rangers (and thereby earning the nickname “The Bullet Swallower”), and made his way home to Mexico. Using this as a springboard, she has spun a stunning and emotional tale spanning more than a century, transporting readers to a lawless Texas-Mexico border as well as an affluent part of Mexico City, touching on issues of colonialism, racism, and more.

Chapters alternate between film star Jaime Sonora and his ancestor, the eponymous bandido, Antonio Sonora. The latter plans a train heist, hoping to steal enough riches to lift his little family out of poverty, but gaining only a personal vendetta against a trio of Texas Rangers instead. I was completely invested in this story line – the setting was gorgeously depicted, as we blazed trails through the chaparral beneath a luminous sky. I adored the relationship Antonio winds up forging with sharpshooter Peter Ainsley, “The Gentleman Assassin”. The link between Antonio’s story and that of his descendant, Jaime, is the shadow of retribution, a literal dark figure who is tasked with collecting souls, and the Sonoro family is deep in cosmic debt…

[He], for all of his faults, woke up every morning and tried to be better. And maybe that was all there was and all there ever would be: a daily dedication to the light.

Jaime’s chapters didn’t resonate with me quite as much (there were some A-holes in the Sonora lineage, but it hardly seems like every single one of them was evil; and what did the woman who wrote an entire history about their family have to do with them in the first place?), but were still fine, especially in how they represent the completion of Antonio’s story.

The author is without doubt a talented writer, and this story got me right in the feels. And that cover! An all around beautiful book.

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