By Samantha Pak
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
By Sangu Mandanna
Berkley, 2022
Even though Mika Moon lives in a dangerous world for witches, that doesn’t stop her from posting YouTube videos of herself “pretending” to do magic. But then someone sees through her act and she receives a letter from a place called Nowhere House with a request to teach three young witches how to control their magic.
Jamie Kelly, librarian and Nowhere House’s resident grump, will do anything to protect the girls and doesn’t trust Mika at all. But over time, he sees how much Mika is actually helping them and that she genuinely cares for the girls. Eventually, the pair learns to put aside their differences to be there for their young charges—and of course, fall in love.
“Irregular Witches” is a romance featuring one of my favorite tropes of the genre: the grumpy-sunshine couple. Mika’s and Jamie’s personalities balance each other out well and as the story progresses, Mandanna does a great job of revealing the events that shaped them. While I love a good grump—and Jamie, with his desire to stay among his books and not be around people, is a great one—I really appreciated Mika’s outlook on life after having been through some pretty tough times. She doesn’t allow her past, or the world’s view on witches, to bring her down. Instead, she focuses on what can be done to change and improve things—an example most of us can follow.
I also really enjoyed everyone living in Nowhere House. From Ken, the groundskeeper, and his husband Ian, to Lucie the housekeeper—alongside Mika and Jamie—they create a lovely and quirky family for three young girls.
Then there are the girls themselves. Rosetta, Terracotta, and Altamira, while not related by blood, are very much sisters. They each have strong personalities and are protective of the ones they love. Initially, it’s for the original residents of Nowhere House, but soon extends to Mika and it’s touching to see how that manifests.
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
By Jesse Q. Sutanto
Berkley, 2023
As a lady of a certain age living alone above her tea shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Vera Wong is lonely. She spends her days sitting in her empty store, waiting for customers who never show up, and texting her son unsolicited advice that often goes unanswered.
Despite her mostly solitary existence, Vera is not needy and can take care of herself. Which is why when she finds a dead man in the middle of her shop one morning, she doesn’t think twice about swiping and hiding the flash drive in his hand, before the police show up to investigate. After all, who better to find the killer than a suspicious Chinese mother with nothing but time on her hands? Certainly not the cops.
As her shop suddenly sees a new stream of customers, Vera knows the killer is among them. What she doesn’t expect is to start to care about all of them. When the time comes, will she be able to turn in one of her newfound friends?
“Vera Wong” is a fun whodunnit, featuring an unlikely protagonist. As an older Asian woman, Vera is part of an oft-forgotten demographic, but here, she shines. Vera is nothing short of a force and Sutanto does a great job of capturing the nosiness, meddling and sheer confidence in always being right that comes with age—often with hilarious results.
But underneath all the humor, this is also a story about loneliness. Told from five different points of views (Vera’s and her four suspects’), readers get to know these characters who have been living isolated existences for different reasons, see how a single event brings them all together, and the bonds they create. Even though they’re all suspects in a murder (at least in Vera’s investigation), you can’t help but fall in love with them, root for them, and hope they succeed in their respective ventures.
Light From Uncommon Stars
By Ryka Aoki
Tor Books, 2021
To escape eternal damnation, violinist Shizuka Satomi made a deal with a demon—entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She’s delivered six and just needs to find one more. Enter Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway who catches Shizuka’s ear while playing violin in a park. Shizuka can already feel the curse lifting.
But then she meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain and interstellar refugee-turned-owner of Starrgate Donuts in the San Gabriel Valley. With her soul literally on the line, Shizuka doesn’t have time for crushes or coffee dates, but she can’t help but be drawn to the mother of four.
As Shizuka’s relationships with both women grow, she starts to rethink her fate and the fates she’s damned others to.
In “Uncommon Stars,” Aoki does a great job of blending fantasy with science fiction. Classical music, the devil, donuts, and space aliens are a most unlikely combination, but somehow she makes it work here. It’s fun to see how all these elements cross paths, especially as the story progresses. I particularly enjoyed the final scenes (don’t worry, no spoilers here!)
As fun as the magic and science fiction elements are, I also really enjoyed seeing the relationships between the different characters grow throughout the story. Although they all come from very different worlds (in Lan’s case, quite literally), they still connect and build those strong bonds.
I especially loved seeing Shizuka and Katrina’s relationship evolve from teacher and student, to more of a parent-child nature as Shizuka learns more about the trauma Katrina has lived through in her young life. Aoki doesn’t shy away from the hardships transgender people—especially young transgender folks—experience. As an ally, but one who wasn’t too familiar with some of the details, it was heartbreaking and eye opening for me, but necessary to learn about.
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