I saw some of the blurbs and reviews make references to Studio Ghibli and The Night Circus as comparisons for this book but they are superficial comparisons – this novel doesn’t come close to reaching the emotional depths of The Night Circus, even as it takes the reader on a tour through a magical world. I have never actually seen a Studio Ghibli movie (I know, huge gap) but I have seen trailers, and I know vaguely from paying attention to pop culture how deeply moving and beloved those stories are. This novel doesn’t reach those depths, but I do think that a lot of the middle part of the novel might have worked better in a visual media like film. As they are presented in the novel, though, they kind of serve to make the novel lose the plot a little bit – yes, there are plot reasons the main characters are moving from place to place as they are in search of another character and on the run from a different group but as a result, none of the magical settings really stick. Everything is just background scenery, and the focus on the background scenery also makes the tension of the mystery and pursuit disappear.
Let’s take that Night Circus comp, for example – exploring the circus and the magic of it is as much a part of the novel and why it works as the overarching plot. Here, after the third or fourth magical escape by puddle or traveling via song or whatever, it’s no longer that interesting because we don’t truly get to explore the world, bouncing from one place to the next, and the two main characters are paper thin with a slightly juvenile insta-love story.
Hana and her dad run a magical pawnshop outside this world. Sometimes, people from this world try to visit a ramen shop and instead end up in the pawnshop because they have a regret they want to get rid of, without even knowing it. The morning after father’s retirement, Hana finds her father missing, the pawnshop ransacked. She realizes quickly he has staged the break in, and that he has actually left to find her mother, a woman Hana thought dead. Right before Hana leaves on her search, a customer walks into the shop and ends up volunteering to help.
Thus starts the story – it’s an interesting and magical premise and while it wasn’t a page turner, I was enjoying the novel for the first half or so before it all just got tedious. Oh another mad escape and magical setting without real answers? It just doesn’t quite have the right tone to be a dreamy vibes only novel where plot doesn’t matter.
The cover was pretty and while it started off promising, ultimately the payoff wasn’t worth it, it was a book that wanted to be deep and cozy and instead felt superficial. I didn’t hate this but it just wasn’t nearly as good as many of the other books I have given 3 stars to so 2 stars.