The problem with reading a book I’ve never read before is that I can’t guarantee I’m going to finish it. In fact, the last book I tried is a Did Not Finish in my reading journal. So it’s no surprise that I opened my latest library book with a touch of trepidation. I reserved Water Moon: A Novel by Samantha Sotto Yambao at the library before it was even released because it was described as a fantasy worthy of a Studio Ghibli movie. Would Water Moon fair better than the last book I tried to read?
Since I bribe myself to exercise by reading on the stationary bike at the gym, I took Water Moon with me. I was captivated from the first page. Afterwards, I told my husband all about the book, or at least the first forty pages. I raved about it. I don’t just like this book, I love it.
Then he asked the killer question: why?
Unable to put my finger on what made it successful, I was suddenly asking myself questions.
How did Yambao hook me in just a couple of paragraphs? Was it the premise? The characters? The mysteries? The language? Some combination of the above?
I was getting ready to roll up my sleeves and take the first pages of this book apart — I’m a novelist, I want to know how books work — when I suddenly thought an analysis could wait. Possibly forever.
Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love. ~Claude Monet
There is magic in true art. We can discuss and analyze all we want, but we can’t distill down ingredients and generate a sure-fire recipe for an engrossing fantasy novel, much as we might like to.
I’m fairly confident the author knows what she doing and this book will be a gem right up to the end. Right now, the only thing I need to understand is that I love this book.
Have you ever fallen in love with a book right from the start?
I fell in love with two of Sarah Winman’s novels from the very start: A Year of Marvellous Ways and Still Life. They are very different, yet Winman has a voice filled with her love of humanity and compassion for our flawed and vulnerable strivings to be humans in generous relationship with other humans, art, and the world. I’m just waiting for a little more time to pass before I read them both again. (Winman’s narrations of these books in audiobook versions are also nothing short of a theatrical treat.)
Cool! I loved Water Moon beginning to end.