I wasn’t really planning on reviewing these, but I’ve used them for various bingos, so the completionist in me made me do it.

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker & Wendy Xu 

A story of love and demons, family and witchcraft.

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 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.

Mooncakes was a joy to read, it’s so sweet and wholesome. It’s all positive vibes, focused on accepting yourself and others. It’s YA about a young witch struggling with her place in the world, torn between sticking with her family and setting out on her own. There’s lots of magic (the MC’s grandmas are lovely and powerful witches), werewolves, ghosts, great looking food, I need to see if I can find mooncakes in Romania. Most of the characters genuinely care for each other, they’re supportive and accepting. It’s very much a perfect book to read this year and feel good. The art style is also cute and happy. 

Another reviewer on goodreads mentioned this book has diversity for days, and I fully agree, the MCs are both Chinese-American, one of them wears hearing aids, the other non-binary, the grandmas are in a loving relationship with each other. Just yeah, book make happy, do read. 

 LaGuardia Nnedi Okorafor and Tana Ford

From Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award Winner Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death, Binti, Akata series) comes Laguardia. Set in an alternative world where aliens have come to Earth and integrated with society, LaGuardia revolves around a pregnant Nigerian-American doctor, Future Nwafor Chukwuebuka, who has just returned to NYC under mysterious conditions. After smuggling an illegal alien plant named “Letme Live” through LaGuardia International and Interstellar Airport’s customs and security, she arrives at her grandmother’s tenement, the New Hope Apartments in the South Bronx.

There, she and Letme become part of a growing population of mostly African and shape-shifting alien immigrants, battling against interrogation, discrimination and travel bans, as they try to make it in a new land. But, as the birth of her child nears, Future begins to change. What dark secret is she hiding?

A story about immigration, acceptance and aliens, all while worrying about a future baby. I liked the aliens, especially the plant-like one that was important in the story. The art style was lovely, vibrant, and colorful. Futuristic Lagos is accepting and a sort of safe haven for alien immigrants, while futuristic US is a lot closer to the current US in these matters.It’s the second story I’ve read with Nigeria being a main point for alien contact (the other was Rosewater) and I like it when we see aliens outside the UK/US.

Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow

In the rapidly converging landscape of the 21st century Major Kusanagi is charged to track down the craftiest and most dangerous terrorists and cybercriminals, including ghost hackers When he track the trail of one hacker, her quest leads her to a world she could never have imagined.

Yeah, no. I just really very much do not like cyberpunk. There’s nothing about its themes, aesthetics, anything, that I find appealing. So why did I read this? Well, I had a copy and needed a book for the bingo translated square. When I review stuff I didn’t like I try to also include what I did like about the book, but here I’ve got nothing. The art style was ok I guess. To be fair got off on the wrong foot, the chapters are very episodic so it took me a long time to get the hang of who’s who and what’s going on. A more linear story emerged towards the end of the volume, which helped a bit. But there was a lot of “we’re the government! no we’re the government! everyone’s legit! no one’s legit!” that I found hard to keep track of. There was a lot of technobabble and shooting stuff. A good serving of robo-boobs, somehow no matter how injured the robo-women get their boobs stay intact and visible. I can see how that may be a plus, but I find it so very boring.