The Full Moon Coffee Shop (The Full Moon Coffee Shop, #1) by Mai Mochizuki, Jesse Kirkwood
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Genres: literary fiction, magical realism, world literature
Pages: 228
Published by Ballantine Books on August 20, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

Translated from the Japanese bestseller, this charming and magical novel, inspired by the myth of cats returning favors to those who care for them, reminds us that it’s never too late to follow our stars.
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 particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and seemingly appears at random to adrift young people at crucial junctions in their lives.
It’s also run by talking cats.
While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes, coffees, and teas, the cats also consult them on their star charts, offer cryptic wisdom, and let them know where their lives have veered off course—because every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. And for a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist, and a technologically challenged website designer, the feline guides will set them back on their fated paths. After all, there is a reason the shop appeared to each of them…

My Review:

It will not surprise any reader of my reviews that this book had me at cats. And it was expecting something a but cutesy, but also heartwarming and charming because a) cats and b) this book is part of the recent trend of interconnected vignette novels that kicked off – or at least into high gear – with Before the Coffee Gets Cold – a trend which I’ve been enjoying very much.

So I was expecting a similar combination of magical realism with a touch of cozy fantasy and/or cozy mystery, just with a whole lot of cats.

I fully admit I was NOT expecting the astrology bits, but we all get our paradigm shifts where we find them and the logic of what causes them doesn’t have to be the same for everyone. So even though the astrology explanations didn’t work for me except as a metaphor, as a metaphor they worked just fine.

What got me in the heart was the way that the story managed to come full circle and tie itself up with a truly beautiful bow. If, as this book posits albeit a bit sideways, if the Rainbow Bridge touches down on Earth  when the moon is full so that the cats we have loved and cared for have a chance to give us a bit of a push when we need it – I’m there for it.

Escape Rating B: At first, the stories seem a bit random, as they often do in this kind of book. I’m thinking of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, The Dallergut Dream Department Store, What You are Looking For Is In the Library, and my personal favorite, The Kamogawa Food Detectives.

When the two cats deliver some rather tough love to the down-on-her-luck, has-been writer, it’s not just her life that needs to change. The following stories connect back to her, and to a time in her life when her dreams were still in front of her.

And they could be again if she just takes the more practical aspects of the cats’ advice. As she does.

What I wasn’t expecting – but should have because these books often work similarly – was that all the people involved remember her, remember her fondly, were inspired by her in their own ways, and were part of an event in their brief time together that affected them all deeply even if they didn’t specifically remember it.

It’s that event that leads back to the cats, and to a truth about animal companions regardless of species. That it’s not just that we rescue them, as this teacher turned scriptwriter and her students once did. It’s that they rescue us as well.

And it’s that truth that makes the whole story not just work, but work with a smile and just a touch of a tear at its just so delicious bittersweet ending.