The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki

The Full Moon Coffee Shop

by Mai Mochizuki

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Translated from the Japanese bestseller, a charming and magical novel that reminds us it’s never too late to follow our stars.

“Mochizuki dazzles in her beautifully crafted contemporary fantasy debut. . . . This gentle fantasy is not to be missed.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review (Best Books of the Year)

In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they’ll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon.

This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and it seemingly appears at random.

It’s also run by talking cats.

While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes and coffees and teas, the cats also consult their star charts, offering cryptic wisdom, and letting them know where their lives veered off course.

Every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. For a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist, and a technologically challenged website designer, the coffee shop’s feline guides will set them back on their fated paths. For there is a very special reason the shop appeared to each of them . . .

Reviewed by annieb123 on

4 of 5 stars

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Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop is the first book in a cozy fantasy series by Mai Mochizuki. Originally published in Japanese in 2020, this English language translation is due out 20th Aug 2024 from Penguin Random House on their Ballantine imprint It's 240 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

There's a vibrant sub-genre in Japanese food related cozy fantasy (Kamogawa Food Detectives, Tales from the Cafe, Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Dallergut Department Store (which was Korean, but same basic genre), etc), and this one fits right in with the others. There's definitely a dreamlike, slightly trippy, aspect (the cafe is ephemeral and changes location depending on circumstances dictated by the patrons' needs, always on the full moon, oh, and it's staffed by giant anthropomorphic talking cats). 

The book has a dreamlike quality, and the cats wax poetic to their patrons about Japanese astrology (quite a lot) and philosophy, and music. It contains a fair bit of "woo-woo" pop psychology, but overall it's entertaining, full of whimsy, and fun with a serious bent. 

The prose is beautifully wrought and although slightly discursive and meandering, manages to make some good points about the meaning and trajectory of life, growing up, acceptance, and being truthful (and kind) to ourselves. The translation work, done by Jesse Kirkwood, is seamless and invisible. The text flows very well, and it doesn't read as though it's been translated (which has to be the goal). 

Four stars. Well written, professionally translated, and full of whimsy, it would make an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home use, and a challenging and enjoyable book club selection/buddy read. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes. 

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Reading updates

  • 20 August, 2024: Started reading
  • 20 August, 2024: Finished reading
  • 20 August, 2024: Reviewed