Mooncakes peaked my interest as soon as I read it's blurb and it did not disappoint me! This graphic novel is a story about Nova and her friend/love interest Tam and the struggles they face in the world of magic. Tam is a non-binary werewolf who is struggling to find their magic that will help to destroy the demon that has been hunting them. Nova, a practicing witch, combines the power of magic and technology (her hearing aids!) to help Tam with the task! The representation of lgbtq folks and disabled/differently abled people in this story is wonderfully written without feeling forced or lazy. The art style is colorful and eye catching which is reminiscent of Nika Alexander's webcomic, Sixty-Four! Overall a fun, thrilling, witchy adventure story!

I loved the rep that's included in this graphic novel! LGBTQ+ main characters, one of which is a werewolf and the other is a witch. One MC uses hearing aids and the other uses they/them pronouns. There's queer grandmothers in a F/F relationship, a fat side character and plenty of witchy drama, what more does a great graphic novel need?
I also really liked the romance, it was so utterly cute! The art is fantastic, to me the art is one of the main factors that decides if I'll enjoy reading the graphic novel or not, and the art in this one was so soft and detailed. It was a shame the last few pages hadn't been coloured in yet, but I'm sure the finished edition will be exquisite.
This is a fun and dramatic fantasy story with wonderful art so compliment the narrative.

I was desperately needing my fill of a particular type of story and Suzanne Walker cooked up an awesome mix of witchy, queer and gorgeous. (Mooncakes..Cooked up.. see what I did there? I know.)
Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this graphic novel!

The very first thing I check out before starting a graphic novel is the art style. Mooncakes has this really fun YA/Middle Grade type of graphic style with gorgeous colors that just draws the eye.

The second and equally important element is the plot. Two childhood friends come together after a long time apart, but the twist is: Nova is a WITCH with HEARING IMPAIRMENT and Tam is a WEREWOLF.. and also NON-BINARY.
Nova (just like Tam) is Chinese-American and lives with her two hilarious Nanas (which is awesome on it's own), and they love and support her to bits. Oh yeah, and they run this bookstore that has a room full of books on witchcraft! Can I go??
Tam has been away for years and they are now having some magic issues: it's not easy being a werewolf.. especially when shady people are after your powers!

I had two issues, related to the villain and the ending. It just felt like some pieces weren't the most original and probable but this didn't affect my enjoyment of this graphic novel all that much.
Gorgeous and powerful magical creatures/spirits live in the Nanas' garden, romance starts to blossom between long-lost friends and the witches, Tam and a nerdy BF are ready to fight for what is important.

Mooncakes is FULL OF REPRESENTATION which I appreciated a whole lot. Actually, Nova uses her 'disability' to fight the evil forces and I thought that was so clever!

I'm genuinely glad that I got to read this, and I hope there will be more to come!

I absolutely adored this graphic novel. I saw a lot of booktubers reading it not too long ago and loving it so I gave it a shot and definitely don't regret it!!!

In this book we meet Tam (a werewolf) and Nova (a witch). They are reunited after being separated for a long time, and try to rekindle the friendship (or more) that they had before Tam moved away. While trying to get to know each other better after so long apart, they have to work together with Nova's family to figure out why a demon has come to town and Tam has to learn how to harness her wolf power to help vanquish it and who is behind all the weird things happening.

This graphic novel was everything I was hoping to be. Great LGBTQIA+ rep and support, witchy Halloween setting and vibes, and great family relationships portrayed. The art was also perfectly done for the setting of the story.

📚Book Review 📚
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
(10/15/19)
First of, I don’t really read graphic novels so I apologize if this isn’t the best review out there.
I LOVED this story line and all the bewitching elements. Give me a book with a girl with purple hair it and I’m in love. The witchcraft elements in it were very accurate and the black cat books store is now something I need in my life.
I can’t say if this book is different from the others because I don’t read graphics but from the story line it was like no other. This is LGBTQ+ and the book wouldn’t be the same without that. The character development is very well written and over all YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.

Gosh. Okay. This world needs more stories about hard-of-hearing witches and their non-binary werewolf-partners and this was delightful.

Nova Huang, Chinese-American witch who lives with her grandmothers and helps out in their bookshop, finds her childhood best friend Tam Lang, who not only went and left years ago, but who's also a werewolf, in the woods battling a demon horse.

From here, it's the sweetest story of how old love doesn't die (they're in looooove. It's delightful and sweet and made me so, so happy and full of fuzzies) and how, with a little help from friends and family, you can beat the darkness, against a backdrop of magic, mystery, different family constellations and just.. queer witchy stuff. Things of pure delight.

ALSO, very important: there are tiny little spirits and they are the CUTEST. The art is generally just so well-done, but those spirits gave me life. I'd read an entire book just about them.

ARC given by NetGalley for a honest review.

OMG! I loved this book!

Nova Huang works at her grandmothers' bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town.
One night, she encounter 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.

It's a beautiful story and the characters are so lovable, you will want to be part of the family.
I loved Nova and Tam and how their shy relationship blooms.
And the serenity and wisdom of the nanas. ( I love them!)
And let's not forget Tatyana, who can not understand how physics works in Magick.

This is a sweet book and I think if you read it, you will want to be part of tha family too.

A sort of magical Nancy Drew, living with two grandmothers, is told there are shady things going on at night. She investigates, and finds a werewolf battling a horse, which apparently was only a horse demon, but hey – demon. She then finds that one of those two was her ex, who wants to turn into a werewolf more easily, so that she can fight the horse demon she's partly to blame for. Oh, but she's already turned into a hermaphrodite, so she's turned "she" into "they", for complete lack of comprehension just when it matters most later. All told there is too much about gender-fluidity and homosexuality and ticking boxes, and not quite enough magical fantasy going on here. The characters are mostly potentially interesting, especially the young witch. The book tells us that everyone's of an oriental bent, but the artwork fails to convey that practically all of the time. What I felt the biggest flaw was that it was too engrossed in peopling itself with the 'other' (parents who are dead, parents who think the whole 'they' nonsense is a load of bollux, blokes with a giant pigeon head for a face…) to really excel where it might have done, concerning genre. But the fantasy story, obvious baddy aside, has just about enough energy in the telling to make it reasonable.

My review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu is a graphic novel about Nova and Tam, two queer Chinese-American supernatural people. Nova is a witch with hearing aids, and Tam is a non-binary werewolf.

Tam has come back to one of the many places they lived in whilst growing up, which is where Nova lives. Tam is on a mission, and Nova runs into them, and offers to help.

There are more witches, demonic horses, and spirits of the forest. What else could you want?

Mooncakes is due to be published on 15th October 2019, and is available to buy on Amazon and on Waterstones. I've found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

You can follow Suzanne Walker on Twitter, or through her website, and Wendy Xu on Twitter or through her website.

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Lion Forge and Oni Press (the publishers) for this book.

Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

This book is so cute! The graphics are a delight, the characters are sweet and well-developed and the plot was interesting and mysterious. I would definitely recommend this graphic novel!

One of the first things that capture my attention was the drawing style that in my opinion combine with all the universe of magic described in the comic and the romance.
The romance between Tom and Nova is really sweet and when the book finished I just wanted a new comic just about their life together, another point that I liked about this comic was the representativeness of two queer, Asian-American characters with Tom being a non-binary werewolf and Nova a witch that wears hearing aids. The magical universe in this comic is really interesting and I liked the final battle against the people of the cult and the way that Tom dealt with the demon. I left the comic with a lot of questions that didn't have anything with the main story and are one of the reasons that I want another book of this universe.

I just want everyone to read this! It was so cute and queer and diverse and basically, I need everyone and their grandmother to read this!
We have a protagonist who wears hearing aids (and it's totally normal!!) and a nonbinary love interest who prefers they/them pronouns, we have a supportive family and did I mention there are werewolves? Witches? Magic!?
I cannot recommend this graphic novel enough! The art was so stunning and don't even get me started on the story and the characters. I just want five hundred more of these graphic novels, thanks.

I received this for review purposes via Netgalley.

This was a quick read, I really enjoyed the artwork, it was really fun and pretty though for the last third of the book it was in black and white instead of color which I didn’t like but maybe that was due to it being an arc?
The story was good but it felt like there was a lot of lead up for a ending that felt rushed and a bit flat.
I would read more from this author tho.

Read the arc on netgalley!

"Sometimes, I think we need space. A chance to go out on our own, find our own way."

This graphic novel was so damn pure and cute and magical and I loved it!

The story follows a young witch named Nova who lives with her two grandmothers and their adorable cat. She's still dealing with the loss of her parents and unsure on what she wants to do with her life. Tam, a non-binary werewolf comes back into Nova's life when they are tracking down and attempting to get rid of a demon that appeared in their town, and Nova stumbles across Tam in their wolf form, attempting to get rid of the demon. They knew each other when they were younger but they really form a connection when they find each other again.

Their relationship was so pure and adorable. I loved the fact that they were constantly supporting each other with everything and that they were always there for each other, no matter what was happening. Their first kiss was one of the most adorable first kiss scenes I've read.

The family and friendship in this were amazing. Nova's grandmothers were so supportive of her and Tam and were always there to help them with any issue that happened. They never looked down on them for needing help, they just wanted to do whatever they could to help them. Nova's best friend, Tat was also a hilarious add on to the story! I loved that she was skeptic about the witches' magic and how it all worked but she was supportive of Nova at the same time.

I loved the diversity and rep in this graphic novel. Nova and Tam are both Chinese-American. Nova is hard-of-hearing and uses hearing aids. I think this might be the only book I've read with a character who is hard of hearing and I'm really glad that those who are like Nova have this representation to see and connect to! Tam is non-binary and again, more representation that I am so glad that those like Tam will be able to see themselves in them and connect to this story.

I loved all of the magical elements in this graphic novel, from the witches' magic, to all of the cute magical spirits and creatures included.

This was just the purest graphic novel and I am so glad that I had a chance to read it early.

Side note: I loved all of the puns So Much.

5/5

Well what can I say about mooncakes which is a graphic novel about two girls nova who is a with with hearing problems and tam who is a werewolf. Tam returns to her hometown and their love for each other is rekindle. There is another story weaved into the novel of evil demon like horses in the wood what reasons are they there and what do they want and who brought them there. I also love the relationship between nova and her grandparents who have looked after nova after her parents had passed even though her dead parents do visit her as ghosts. I think the artwork is stunning and suits the story and would love to read more from Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker as I think they are very talented. Therefore I am giving them 5 stars for such an entertaining read which took me a day to read

I really enjoyed the representation in this graphic novel. Both main characters, Nova and Tam are Chinese American. Nova is a witch who is hard of hearing, and Tam is a non-binary werewolf who uses they/them pronouns. This is a romance and Tam's identity wasn't addressed more than an interaction with them correcting a character on their pronouns. I would've liked to see that addressed a little more from Tam because they hadn't seen Nova in quite some time and there was a lot of catching up to do. But, I also respect that Tam's identity wasn't fully expanded on because it's nice to just see a non-binary character in love.

In general, I absolutely loved the illustrations, they were stunning! Especially the magic scenes, they blew me away! There was a lot of attention to detail in all of the right moments and the addition of the black cats were a plus for me! I would've liked more depth to the story because it felt sort of rushed. I felt like the authors just wanted to write a romance, if so they should've just stuck to that.

This genuinely was one of the sweetest graphic novels I've read in a while! It tackles morality, individual growth, family and so much more in such a short amount of time. I read it in less than an hour and honestly, would recommend this to everyone. It's super short and sweet, but really packs a punch. Also my heart is so here for the queer romance in this, and the witchy, whimsical vibes are everything! The perfect read for it's October release date!! <3

The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via netgalley.

Love is love is love is love! #Mooncakes

This book is a LGBT+ dream come true! I love how Tam corrects Nana when calling her 'she' & tells her how she goes by they/them & no one even bats an eye. The acceptance in this book is beautiful! The love this family shares is inspiring, especially the love they give. At one point Novas mother gets mad about her not leaving home but I agree with the Nana's thats what they all decided would be best & I think it was best at the time, they helped raise a wonderful, caring, strong & brave young woman! I'm obsessed with Nova & her entire family! I especially like her cousin Terry & secretly want to know more about what happened to him. Tams wolf magic is absolutely amazing! I hope she learns to master it more & really get to use it in another battle with Nova by her side! Can't wait to read more adventures with them!

Mooncakes is just full of adorable.
Yes, i know. I said ADORABLE! Sweet and joyous and amazing too.



Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker have together created an imaginative story of two childhood friends Nova and Tam, who parted before their crushes for each other could be addressed -re-united unexpectedly but joyously.
Together they will test their own feelings, their abilities and support each other on their journeys of self exploration.
Navigating all of this alone would make for a good story in itself, but Tam has returned to face literal demons and Nova will have Tam's back against all odds.


This book is full of excellent representation. Chinese American characters, one protagonist is partially deaf, the other non-binary identifying with they/them pronouns. Unusual families who feel realistically complicated, annoying - but still loving and supportive in their individual ways.


I really have a weakness for adorable love stories, tales of the paranormal and great art. Mooncakes combines all three! I love it.
Mooncakes is ideal for anyone teen and above, i'll certainly be hyping this book up to everyone i can.


5 Stars.


Mooncakes is published by Lion Forge and is released and will be available from the 15th October 2019. This review is based upon an uncorrected proof kindly provided by the publisher Lion Forge, through Netgalley.