Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao Summary

Water Moon is a magical realism novel set in Tokyo, Japan, following Hana Ishikawa, a 21-year-old who inherits her family's enchanted pawnshop where people can trade their deepest regrets for peace of mind. When the shop is ransacked, her father disappears, and a precious regret is stolen, Hana embarks on a mystical quest with Keishin, a charming physicist, traveling through puddle portals and paper cranes to recover what was lost.

Samantha Sotto Yambao is a Filipino speculative fiction writer and professional daydreamer based in Manila, Philippines. She is the author of Water Moon (2025), Before Ever After, Love and Gravity, A Dream of Trees, and The Beginning of Always. Her debut novel was inspired by nursing a book hangover from The Time Traveler's Wife, and she's known for blending fantasy with deeply emotional storytelling.

Water Moon is perfect for readers who love atmospheric fantasy, Japanese-inspired settings, and philosophical explorations of regret and choice. Fans of magical realism, cozy fantasy, and stories about fate versus free will will find this book captivating. It appeals to those who enjoyed The Night Circus, The House in the Cerulean Sea, or dreamlike narratives that blend whimsy with deeper existential questions about happiness and freedom.

Water Moon is worth reading for its imaginative world-building, creative magical systems, and thought-provoking themes about regret, contentment, and destiny. Readers praise its whimsical atmosphere, unique premise of pawning life choices, and the romantic quest between Hana and Keishin. The author recommends going in blind to fully experience how the world unfolds, making it ideal for those who appreciate slow-burn revelations and philosophical fantasy.

The pawnshop in Water Moon represents a sanctuary for those carrying unbearable regrets and painful life choices. Disguised as a ramen restaurant to most people, only those who are lost can find it. Clients exchange their regrets—manifested as luminescent birds—for peace of mind and contentment. The shop exists in a liminal space between moments, symbolizing how we all seek relief from decisions that haunt us and the universal desire to rewrite our past.

The water moon symbolizes an unattainable desire—the reflection of the moon in water that you can see but never touch. This powerful metaphor represents humanity's tendency to chase impossible dreams and yearn for what lies beyond reach. The phrase connects to the novel's core themes of contentment versus ambition, as characters must decide whether pursuing their water moons brings fulfillment or perpetual dissatisfaction. It embodies the tension between accepting one's fate and desiring freedom.

Water Moon explores freedom versus fate, contentment versus ambition, and the cost of regret. The novel examines how knowing your predetermined future strips away choice and hope, as characters are "inked" with their life stories from birth. Hana struggles with wanting freedom like Keishin, whose future remains unknown and full of possibilities. The story questions whether true happiness comes from accepting destiny or fighting for self-determination, ultimately exploring how our choices define us.

Water Moon presents a world where people are "inked" with predetermined life stories visible when water touches their skin. Hana views this foreknowledge as stolen freedom, envying Keishin's uncertainty about his future. The novel argues that knowing your destiny eliminates every choice and chance to dream. Through the pawnshop's mechanics and Hana's journey, the story explores whether predetermined fate provides comfort or creates prison, and examines what happens when characters rebel against their written destinies.

Water Moon was inspired by Samantha Sotto Yambao's visit to Ninenzaka Street in Kyoto, where she entered a traditional-looking house that unexpectedly contained a modern coffeeshop. This sense of wonder combined with observing Manila pawnshops during the pandemic lockdown, where people pawned items representing stories and choices that led them there. She wove these experiences together, imagining a pawnshop where the regrets themselves—not just objects—could be traded.

Characters in Water Moon travel through fantastical, imaginative means including:

• puddle portals
• being folded into paper doors
• riding paper cranes made from stolen minutes
• traveling on the wings of songs
• navigating through people's shared rumors

They journey across the bridge between midnight and morning and through a night market in the clouds. These creative transportation methods reflect the liminal, dreamlike nature of Hana's world, where magic operates outside conventional physics.

The Shiikuin are the main antagonists in Water Moon, described as "monkish dementors" who govern Hana's world and control the regrets collected by the pawnshop. They enforce strict rules: if a pawned choice goes missing when they come to collect, the consequences are severe. Hana risks being forced into exile—"to be erased"—which is what happened to her mother after she stole a choice from the vault. The Shiikuin represent the rigid enforcement of cosmic order and consequences.

Hana's mother stole a choice from the pawnshop's vault and hasn't been seen since Hana was born. She took the choice because she wasn't content with her life and wanted to know what else existed beyond her predetermined fate. As punishment, she was exiled into "the other world," effectively erased from existence. Her disappearance haunts Hana and drives the story's exploration of whether pursuing freedom and curiosity is worth the ultimate cost of losing everything you know.