Stuck for something to read, I picked up this graphic novel and fell in love. A whimsical YA tale of a witch and a non-binary werewolf, up against a mysterious force in the woods. Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu is adorable, and the graphic novel equivalent of a cuddly blanket and a mug of tea. While it is not the deepest story, it is captivating, and embraces its format and audience. This is the perfect thing to read while stuck in quarantine!

A big thank you to NetGalley and OniPress for providing me an advanced reader’s copy of “Mooncakes“.

Firstly, I loved the diversity in these books! Nova is a queer, hard-of-hearing witch, while Tam is a non-binary werewolf. Also, both of Nova’s grandmothers are also in a relationship! I loved Nova’s interactions with her grandmothers, and her relationship with Tam as well.

The story is very endearing and makes you fuzzy and warm all over. The illustrations by Wendy Xu are wonderful and compliment the story so well. Moreover, I loved the cute mystical creatures from the woods and wanted to see more of them! Furthermore, there are some quirky characters like the cousin with the pigeon head, who was hilarious! As I received an advanced copy of the book, the pages towards the end were not colored. I am interested to pick up this book after all the final revisions and see how it turns out.

There are a few minor things which I felt could have been better. For example, I would have liked to the backstory between Tam and their parents. I was also a bit confused as to what the cult was trying to achieve by getting rid of Tam, and there is no motive mentioned. The plot also seems to change directions midway. For instance, the first half seems to focus mainly on the ghost horse in the woods, but in the second half, it completely shifts focus to the cult. While I am ok with this, I felt like the shift of focus between the two came out of nowhere and felt very rushed towards the end.

But overall, “Mooncakes” is a charming graphic novel if you are in the mood to read about diversity, love and magic!

I cannot wait to buy this cute story and display it on my shelf. This was an all inclusive love story that I could not get enough of.

It's a very cute idea, and I loved the art style, but the story just didn't really give me anything... I'm sure others would enjoy this, but it simply wasn't for me

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for release of this review copy!

I was so excited when I got this! Everyone was talking about it and when I was given this on NetGalley my little heart squealed!

This was so cute!!! I loved the way Suzanne Walker filled this with so much cuteness. I loved the art work! When you include a bookshop and magic in one book, you have a winner!!!

I want to thank Suzanne Walker, Oni Press and NetGalley for this awesome graphic novel.

One of my favourite books in 2019! I read this book as part of Dewey's Readathon and it was a beautiful experience.

It has great characters, querness, fantasy, mushyness and epicness!

This is one of those amazing graphic novels you can't miss, so please go and read this as fast as you can!

This was an enjoyable read for me. The illustration is remarkable and the story is soft, remarkable, sweet, and filled with magical moments! I also like the fact that there are so much representation and diversity in this book. I can't recommend this enough! It is a perfect read for not just October but any season!

Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one.. I thought I'd left feedback already, but apparently not. It's a lovely, sweet story with beautiful art. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.

Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker

*I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

This graphic novel was such a cute read, and the artwork was amazing and so beautifully drawn. It was recommended to me everywhere before I received an ARC and finally got around to reading it, and I’m so glad I did. It’s definitely one I will be rereading.

Nova is a teen from a family of witches who helps her grandmothers run their magical bookshop. When she goes to investigate strange lights and a white wolf sighting in the forest, she runs into Tam, her childhood best friend (and werewolf) and helps them investigate the reason why they’re on their own in the forest trying to fight a demon. Their latent feelings for each other are rekindled along the way in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.

I had an ARC so I did not have all of the full-colour artwork, but it is amazing. The artwork really gave the book a cozy, autumn feel, which combined with the witchy essence of the story, made the whole thing feel perfect for October.

I loved everything about this book. The characters and relationships were brilliantly written, and the representation was great – both main characters are Chinese-American and queer, and Nova has two grandmas in a relationship with each other. Tam uses they/them pronouns (and even corrects other characters) and the other characters are so respectful of them. Nova herself has hearing aids, and this is talked a lot about throughout the story. The family dynamic and friendships are powerful and are a vital part of the novel. Everything about it was incredibly heartwarming and cute.

The storyline is fairly simple and easy to follow, but it worked. No complicated plots, just a feel-good graphic novel with a straight forward plot and an adorable romance.

A perfectly witchy read with amazing representation, beautiful artwork, and adorable characters. I would definitely recommend this to all my reader friends. I devoured it in one sitting (graphic novels are such quick reads!) and I really hope we get more following Nova’s apprenticeship and the relationship between Nova and Tam. Overall, this is the perfect fall/Halloween read, and in my opinion, makes a pretty good valentine's day read too.

The story is really interesting, but I felt it needed a bigger book (or books) to be fully explored. Everything happened too fast with no time for explanations on the magic system, family dynamics, and past friendships. A lot of the character's past had to be told instead of shown because there weren't enough pages to explore both the past and the present. This made it hard to connect with the characters and enjoy their relationship. Despite that, it has great representation and diversity from sexuality to pronouns and even disabilities.
The art style is good but not as detailed as I enjoy. Some pages were beautiful, colourful, and detailed while others were too simplified for my liking.

3 ⭐
If I'm honest, I don't really know where to start. But, I guess I should always start with the positives so here they are:
- this would be a good (and quick) Halloween read
- There's not much dialogue so this is a fast read
- Very diverse (Chinese-American main characters, both queer, Nova is HoH, Tam is Non-binary, Nova has two grandmas)
- An interesting take on werewolves in connection to magic.

The negatives:
- I wasn't a fan of the HoH rep, which I feel bad about but, that's the truth. I generally steer away from deaf/hoh rep because it's hardly ever ownvoices which means it's usually not very good, and in this case, I just wasn't a fan.
I appreciated Nova having hearing aids and complaining about having to take them off to answer the phone, but that's about it. There was no signing (in any capacity), there were no hand gestures or lip-reading and that felt really really weird to me. Basically, my point is this, if you want to have a deaf character they need to actually be deaf THE WHOLE TIME. You can't just slap some hearing aids on them and problem fixed! Hearing aids do not equal being able to hear everything.

Other than this reading really false for me, Mooncakes came across as really underdeveloped to me (no context for relationships, characters, world-building etc.) and seemed to just rely on rep and witchcraft to pull in readers. That being said, I've found that's often the way with first volumes of non-hero comics. But, if this is a standalone then my point still stands and it needed to be better developed in terms of pretty much everything, it jsut felt very half-baked to me.

This book was so cute!!! My rating is more of a 3.5-star rating than a 3-star rating. The art was really good, and the plot was super cute!

Mooncakes has the best combination of witches, werewolves, bookstores, and baking! I know that this doesn't sound like a combination that you need. But trust me, it is. Nova and Tam are *so cute*! And I just wish that we could have had MORE of them.

That is my only criticism. I wish that there was a bit more of a backstory or some more worldbuilding? I know that it's hard when writing a graphic novel, since they tend to be shorter than the average book. But I liked the world so much, that I kind of wish I could have seen more of it!

3.5* stars

This graphic novel was definitely enjoyable and had great artwork, but it wasn't anything spectacular or a new favorite of mine. The plot was intriguing and I wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on; the characters were all so sweet and I loved their dynamics; but overall. I just wasn't super invested.

So I had been hearing a lot about this book last year. I honestly didn't know what it was about but I decided I would give it a chance because of all the great reviews. I tried reading it now on Netgalley but I forgot what happened but ended up waiting for it to come out. I finally got my hands on it and here are my thoughts.

So I have to say I was a little off with what I thought this was about. I really thought the book had to do with baking since they have the characters holding food on the cover and then on the back there is a tray of food on the back. So I was excited about that. I was mistaken. If though the story was not about them baking it was still really enjoyable. I thought it was such a fun read. I am very into witch stories. One of my favorite movies growing up was The Craft so anything that involves witches I am here for. I love how you had the main character who was a witch she was deaf. I don't see a lot of deaf representation in books so I don't know how accurate it was but it was nice to see that added. I also love her grandmas are also witches and they are always there to help her out. Plus they run a bookstore that sells magic books which I thought was so cool.

Another thing I enjoyed was the artwork. It reminded me a bit of The Tea Dragon Society. Only a little when they showed the creatures that were in the woods. I thought the art was nice and was well done. If I like the artwork I feel there is more of a chance of me enjoying the story a lot more.

The only thing that I was a little iffy about was the romance. The two characters are reunited after being a part for a couple of years. They use to have a thing for each other. Right away it's like pretty fast paced but they are back to where they were. I guess I wanted a little bit more build up to this. I mean at the same time I haven't been in a situation. I did just read a story where something similar happened and even though there was connection there both of the characters had changed with their time apart. So I think that's why I am a bit iffy about the whole thing.

Overall it was a great story. It had a lot of different representation. It was an enjoyable witchy read. I hope to read more stories about witches in 2020 because I really forgot how much I enjoy them. I feel if you're into witches with some long lost romance, you'll probably like this read. Plus it's cool just to check out for the artwork.

*Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this early to give my honest opinion.* I am happy I ended up waiting for the finished copy which I got from my library.

Disclaimer: I received a copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was cute AS HECK. The art style and coloring was gorgeous. And I just loved all the characters so much, and how it was a place where magic was known to exist, love those types of worlds.

The characters, though, were just - I loved them all almost instantly, there was just something about them all that I was instantly drawn to.

The plot, actually, surprised me with how it was done. The way it was laid out, the pacing - it was done in a way I wasn't expecting but it was done so well. Most of the "twists" themselves I feel like I saw coming, but that didn't take any enjoyment out of reading this for me.

Overall, I'd recommend this to pretty much everyone and will, personally, definitely be checking out more by Suzanne Walker!

Cute and fun! I enjoyed the art and the story as it progressed. Fans of Sabrina and Lumberjanes should enjoy this one.

I really loved the story and the characters. There is so much diversity in this book which makes it even more outstanding. However, the art style wasn't for me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher Lion Forge for allowing me to receive this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

MOONCAKES
by Suzanne Walker

This is such an adorable graphic novel full of great diverse characters! Following Nova, a female witch who is hard-of-hearing, and Tam, a non-binary werewolf. Both characters are also Chinese-American. I loved the relationships and character development, it felt so real and natural even with them being a witch and werewolf. And you have Nova's two grandmas which were a great addition to the storyline!

Even though I can't speak to the identities of the characters, I thought and hope that they were done well! I loved that you saw a character with a disability that wore hearing aids, and the book showed how to be respectful of people with different pronouns! One of Nova's grandmas uses she at the beginning of the story, and after Tam corrects her, she immediately apologizes and switches to them/they. It is that easy and loved that they showed that!

This definitely is a highlight of diversity and cuteness!
4 Stars / A

Adorable graphic novel about witches cooking sweets, what more could you possibly want? Very cute and lovely.

Mooncakes is a very precious paranormal romance graphic novel. Normally, with graphic novels that are shorter, I feel that the story doesn’t feel complete. Like important information, scenes, and transition were missing so I feel unsatisfied at the end of the story. Mooncakes didn’t suffer from that shortcoming. I really enjoyed Mooncakes and recommend it.