Graphic Novel Review: Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker

Synopsis:

Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers’ bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town. One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods.

As a genderqueer 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. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.

Illustrations by Wendy Xu.

Review:

Mooncakes has been on my to be read for the longest time and I’ve finally gotten around to it. Thankfully it lived up to the expectations I had been building for years and it’s now one of my favourite graphic novels. I really wish it was made into a series.

I’m completely in love with the art style and colour palette of Mooncakes. Every single page was beautifully drawn and coloured and the autumnal vibes were off the charts.

The story was interesting, but it definitely had room for development. Some parts seemed to get brushed away very quickly when they would have benefitted from more explanation, especially the part about Nova’s parents. I didn’t realise they were actually dead when they visited, obviously, they were see-through so that should have given it away, but this is a book about witchcraft they could have been astral projecting.

Witchcraft is one of my favourite topics to read about I loved how it was portrayed here. My favourite spell in the entire story was when Nova amplified her hearing aids to defeat an enemy. That is pure genius and I loved the disability rep shown throughout.

For some reason I thought this book was going to be centred around baking, well before reading the synopsis, as it’s called Mooncakes. Instead the mooncakes are mentioned once in passing and that’s it. This isn’t a bad thing obviously as it doesn’t take away the story, but now I really want to read a book about a witchy bakery.