A story of love and demons, family and witchcraft.

Over the past few months, I saw so many book bloggers recommend this. Whether you’re here for the art, diversity, or fantasy, you won’t be disappointed.

It’s the perfect book to read this time of year. If you need to get into the “fall” mood, after a few chapters, you’ll want to battle demons in the forest too.

I also wanted to point out, in the book, Tam goes by they/them, and obviously, I will be calling them that during the review as well.

And this is spoiler-free, of course.

Premise

Nova Huang is a teen witch with a hearing disability living at her grandmothers’ bookshop. When they’re not selling books, they’re investigating any strange occurrences in town.

Tam Lang is a werewolf in search of a place to call home while stumbling upon a demon in the woods and tries to get rid of it on her their own.

During one night, Nova runs into Tam, who happens to be her childhood crush, and insists on her and her grandmas helping Tam out with the demon. As their feelings are rekindled, they learn more about one another, magic, and run into cults and other witches along the way.

A Cute, Fantasy Story

This book reminded me of The Tea Dragon Society, which I love. From the worldbuilding and the art, it’s a cute world I wish I lived in. Sure, there may be demons but also adorable spirits watching over the forest.

My favorites are the ones with mushrooms growing out of them.

It doesn’t take long for Tam and Nova’s feelings to return for one another. They’re an easy couple to root for and they don’t let anything, not even their different lives, get in the way of being together. Nova’s grandmas and her best friend Tatyana are also there to root along with you for the relationship to work out.

The only bit of a downside is it’s not hard to figure out who is behind the demon in the woods and I’m not sure if that’s on purpose, but the final showdown makes up for that.

My Rating

Overall, Mooncakes is such a big step in the right direction when it comes to more diversity, even for witches. There is talk within the world of witchcraft becoming a more normal thing, and people like Tatyana trying to understand, rather than use science, to make sense of it all.

The art is colorful and fun to look at and I hate to say how quickly I got through the story, only because I enjoyed it so much. I’ll chalk this up as one of my favorite reads of the year.

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