The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki trans. by Jesse Kirkwood

This is a fun, thought provoking, cozy, magical realism story set in modern Kyoto Japan.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop only pops-up during a full moon and only for those who need its services. Two things sets it apart: the staff are human sized cats and skilled astrologers who  know the star charts of the patrons; and the patrons don’t order but given what will best appeal to them.

Throughout the story, troubled characters, connected to each other in some way, find their individual ways to the coffee shop. These people have lost their way and don’t know what will make them happy. With good food and drink and guidance the cats help them find their path.

Okay, right away, I’m a cat person and any story with cats is a better story. The cats have fun well developed personalities and engage in amusing banter among themselves. As a reader, I enjoyed the cats and want to see more of them.

If you have read The Rainfall Market, you’ll see the similarities. Besides featuring cats, they both show people looking for what will make them happy. I was a bit concerned that a story with talking astrologer cats would be too twee for me but it isn’t. The theme is thoughtful and heartfelt and resonated with me such that I talked about both books with my therapist. There is something in the stories that everyone will be able to relate to. In fact, the messages you can glean from both books are more succinct and relatable than what I’ve found in self-help books. So, yeah, the book talked to me personally and that’s a testament to the skill of the author and translator for both books.

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline,

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, is a welcome approach to stories set in a dystopian future. It’s a metaphor for both the environment and the people bound to the earth. The setting is Canada several decades in the future. Civilization has collapsed not from some single apocalyptic event but from factors present in our world today: global warming, corporate greed, and devastating pollution. A pervasive sense of hopelessness has set in and people have lost the ability to dream with a rise in suicide.The indigenous peoples of North America have retained the ability to dream. “Dreams get caught in the webs woven in your bones. That’s where they live, in that marrow there”. The authorities are extracting this ability to dream from the bones of the indigenous peoples.

The story is told in the 1st person by Frenchie, a young Metis boy as he escapes the Recruiters of the Canadian Department of Oneirology (study of dreams) who take the indigenous to “schools” where their dreaming ability is harvested. Frenchie finds a family with other indigenous people, also heading north to safety in the forests.

The heart and soul of the story is what Frenchie finds with his new family. The elders are keeping traditions alive, teaching the old ways: being one with the land, learning Language [of the People], keeping the Story [of the People] alive in memories. In turn, everyone tells their “coming-to” stories, how they found themselves there.

There is action but the story is about the deep bonds that form among the People and between the People and the land.

There is a lot to unpack here: the government finding yet another way to exploit indigenous peoples; a warning that the earth can be broken; respect for the land; and the importance of love and support of family. The author has a beautiful, lyrical, way of describing this. The reader, this one anyway, feels a connection with the characters. I wish I knew a Miigwans, the elder leader and storyteller.

The author herself is indigenous and has written an emotionally stirring and affecting story.

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

The novel was published in French in 1995 by its Belgian author. I only recently discovered it on YouTube. It’s also short (177 pages on Kindle).

it is a moving story and as I started this review I paused and asked myself, “What wouldn’t I have wanted to know before reading”. Therefore, there won’t be much detail beyond a bare synopsis.

40 women are caged in an underground bunker. They don’t know where they are, how they got there, how long they’ve been there, or why they’re there. The cage is guarded by men who never speak. 39 women have names and memories from before the cage: husbands, lovers, careers, domestic life. The last is a young woman—maybe 16— who has only known life in the cage. She is not named but the other women refer to her as “the child”. The Child is frustrated by the women’s refusal to tell about life before the cage. They say they don’t want to burden her with what she will never experience.The Child is smart but angry and sullen when her questions are ignored.

Is this science fiction? Post-apocalyptic. Will all be revealed? One thing I can say is that it’s Kafkaesque: nightmarish, illogical, powerless characters in an absurd situation, victims of some bureaucracy that even the guards have forgotten.  Shades of  Josef K. in Kafka’s The Trial.

The Child is a wonderfully drawn character and we see everything through her first person narration. Her youth and ignorance are actually strengths in this absurd situation and her unschooled intelligence may be the means to bring the women together. Having grown up in the cage, she doesn't have the hang-ups and baggage of a previous life like the others and she sees things and possibilities differently. She is different.

This is a character driven story with the narrator the glue that binds her and the other women. The absurdity of the situation lets us see the strengths and weaknesses of the characters. As we get to know the women as everyone ages, I also found myself misty-eyed so have a hanky handy.

Being short, the story is tight and doesn’t bog down. As a reader I was always anticipating that an answer might be on the next page.

This isn’t a feel-good story but also not depressing. I'm not sure how I felt at the end. Contemplative? Left in a brown study. A bit haunted. Certainly affected.

Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers

The story picks up where A Psalm for the Wild-Built ended. Sibling Dex and his robot friend Mosscap continue their journey across Panga on their way to the City, the capital. This short book (149 pages) is really a series of meditations in story form. I say meditations because the events give the reader much to meditate on. As in A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Mosscap’s questions in an attempt to understand humans initiates much of the discussions. But something new is added. Mosscap experiences a sort of existential crisis as his observations of  humans causes him to have doubts about his own purpose, to become introspective in a human-like way. Another section shows the reader that the robots have their own moral and ethical codes and an interesting discussion ensues between Mosscap and humans.

I much enjoyed how the contrast between the artificial and humans is used as a means to introduce philosophical, moral, and ethical issues and dilemmas. Additionally, Mosscap’s fascination with the natural world—(he keeps several favorite rocks in his pouch—instills in Dex the sheer joy of experiencing nature, something we all should do.The author does so not by bludgeoning the reader but in the context of social interactions and frank, intimate conversations between Mosscap and Dex.

The two Monk and Robot books are among my favorite reads and I’m to seek out the author’s other works. I don’t know if the Chambers has a 3rd book planned but the series could end here. The final scene is really very sweet and smile inducing and a fitting conclusion to the tale.

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

Ok, this will appeal to readers with a strong bent for the dark.

Winifred Notty is hired as governess to the two Pound children at Ensor House, formerly a medieval house. Ensor is in the village of Grim Wolds, a Dicknsian name if there ever was one.We quickly see that something isn’t right with Mis Notty. Indeed, flashbacks show how not right she is. There are hints early on as to what she is capable of.  What is her motivation for coming to Ensor House? Who is she really?

The book is short (195 pages) and the pacing moves the reader along without a lot of unnecessary exposition, which I liked. The story didn’t need to be longer.

For me, Miss Notty’s wry, sardonic observations about the Pound family (mother, father, son, daughter)  and their acquaintances, the pretentious class structure, character and  deficiencies therein of everyone had me going from the beginning. About herself, Notty observes “I open my mouth wide in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the Darkness within me, to spy it peeking out of me, slick and muscular and toothed, like a lamprey swallowed whole.” Very vivid writing.The Darkness is always present and we have no doubt Notty does not have good intentions. She does something truly horrible about half way through but her cover-up made me laugh and delightfully skewers society. I did feel a bit guilty at this.

The story goes full-on bonkers at the end and I really mean full-on. If you read that far, be prepared.

I enjoyed this darkly twisted tale and will be adding her other novel, Mrs. March, to my TBR list.