Graphic Novel – Mooncakes
Author – Suzanne Walker
Illustrator- Wendy Xu
Genre- Fantasy, Paranormal Romance.
Publisher- Lion Forge
Release date – October 15th.
Representation – Chinese- American MCs, queer charcaters, non-binary MC, MC who is hard of hearing and wears a hearing aid, sapphic side characters, f/enby romance, f/f wives.
Rating—★★★★.5
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.
*Thank you to Netgalley and Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.*
Mooncakes is a brand-new graphic novel being released October 15th. With it’s soft-spooky vibes, wonderfully diverse characters and atmospheric artwork; Mooncakes is the perfect Halloween read and, allow me to tell you why I cannot recommend it enough.
Mooncakes is told from the POV of Nova; a witch in training who lives with her grandmothers and secretly still misses her childhood best friend, and Tam; a werewolf on the run, who decides to return to the one place they were happiest. You can all see were this is going right? Yep. Childhood best friends reunited, and yes, the sparks fly!
It was glorious and so very sweet. I mean just look at how cute they are.
In addition to the romance Mooncakes explores a multitude of relationships. Including: Nova’s bond with her family and specifically her grandmothers, Tam’s relationship with their mother and stepfather, and Nova’s connection to her magic. I would like to point out how much I adored Nova’s unique way of controlling her magic. Due to being hard of hearing and wearing a hearing aid, Nova teaches herself new spells and tricks by combining the hearing aid with her magic.
The representation had my heart soaring. Our cast of characters are all Chinese- American. Everyone is also queer. Upon returning Tam comes out to Nova and her family as non-binary; Nova’s grandmothers are happily married and the main romance throughout is f/enby. Furthermore, we also have some lovely scenes like the one below with Nova’s badass grandmothers.
The artwork and illustrations were stunning. The tone was dark and gave a perfect fall setting. It’s valid that the fall setting could also be from, you know – the witches and werewolves, but we’ll go with what I said.
Overall: I highly recommend this graphic novel. I did have one or two issues with the plot and pacing towards the end but so much made up for them. Considering Halloween is just around the corner I feel this is the perfect read; especially if you need something light and spooky after all the heavy horror reads.
Content warnings – Violence, abduction, fighting and injuring a horse( it is a demon horse but still).
Thank you for reading.
Shan💗
shanshelves.wordpress.com 
Loved this one! So spooky and adorable!! Great to get into Halloween spirit! 🙂
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