‘Water Moon’ Review: Substituting Plot With Poetic Potential

Not all adventures are for the books. Some, like “Water Moon,” were destined for poetry and illustrated dreamscapes. Samantha Sotto Yambao’s fifth novel leaves readers with plenty of thought-provoking life lessons. However, the book also leaves them wondering how they got there, confused by muddled timelines and a runaway plot.

“Water Moon” follows the journey of Hana Ishikawa, the new owner of a magical pawnshop in which customers sell their regrets. A spooky incident sets Hana on a quest to find her missing father and a precious choice, connected to her past, stolen from the shop. Her water moon — something so tantalizing that one’s soul aches for it — collides with the water moon of Kei, a charming, restless physicist from the non-magical world. Hana and Kei’s complicated romance is a poignant reminder of the freedom that choice gives us.

Many life lessons and provocative musings are woven throughout the story, from brusque comments on business, such as “Empathy lost deals,” to tragic one-liners like: “He had lied so she would not have to.”

Yambao does not hesitate to articulate the delicate and often cruel implications of loving another person. Most of these lessons are delivered as hard-hitting one-liners at the end of a paragraph. This pattern grows old and predictable as the novel progresses. Some one-liners strike the perfect balance.

The sharpest one comes from Hana’s father, moments before his wife’s execution. Yambao writes, “It was easier to chew on misery if you did not know what happiness tasted like.”

Such epiphanies are scattered across “Water Moon” and lack a clear connection to the novel’s plot. Given how often the plot loses itself, it is unsurprising that these elegant kernels of wisdom seem randomly positioned. Hana and Kei lead a wild goose chase, stumbling into the next problem before they have even grasped the problem at hand. They spend hours searching for the elusive Night Market and nearly fall to their deaths trying to climb up to it. They reach safety at least — until they realize one must slice open the other’s arm with a fish knife to make a memory stone. Armed with said memory stone, they flee from the market to find the ominous Library of the Lost, having never uncovered what supposedly awaited them in the Night Market.

Each short chapter brings up a new twist. While this lack of structure indulges the magical realism and escapism of “Water Moon,” it is ultimately disorienting. By the end, the novel scrambles to tie together too many loose ends, hoping that readers have followed enough to infer a satisfying conclusion on their own.

The fragmented timeline of “Water Moon” further stifles plot development. Every few chapters jumps to a moment in the past, ranging from “Twenty-one years ago” to “A few days prior.” A few flashbacks can do much for a story, but the excessive use of flashbacks in this story makes the narration choppy. Mysteries of the present timeline are anticlimactically explained by detailing past events. Many chapters, however introspective and profound, barely fill three pages and yearn to be reworked as stand-alone pieces. In an alternate timeline, perhaps a poetry anthology would allow Yambao’s eloquent phrasing and fantastical imagery to truly come alive.

“Water Moon” is all about the aesthetics, even down to the dust jacket beautifully illustrated by Haylee Morice. The inside cover features directions for folding the dust jacket into an origami boat, referencing Hana and Kei’s quest through ethereal seas and clouds of promises. These instructions are a thoughtful gesture to readers that invites them to make the book their own. The novel’s prose echoes the same invitation. “Water Moon” implores readers to lean into the liminal in-between of Hana and Kei’s worlds. Every corner of this space presents the opportunity to contemplate one’s relationships, not just with others but also with oneself.

Despite its plot pitfalls, “Water Moon” is imaginative and purposeful in sparking personal reflection. Hana and Kei do not quite fit into their realities. Likewise, their story struggles to fit into the framework and forward momentum of a book. But in another form, “Water Moon” might reach its fullest potential.

—Staff writer Audrey H. Limb can be reached at audrey.limb@thecrimson.com.