The Full Moon Coffee Shop

 

The Full Moon Coffee Shop: A Novel by Mai Mochizuki is a seriously strange story which is the genre I seem to be migrating towards lately. I ended up finishing it rather quickly, despite its quirkiness and the awkwardness of the translation from Japanese.

I feel like I had a hard time connecting with the characters, except for the astrology-spouting cats who were the proprietors of the mysterious Full Moon Coffee Shop. The premise of the story is that the coffee shop would appear out of the blue throughout the book allowing the human characters insight into  their inner feelings, based on the astrological advice from the cats.

The wisdom of the cats who projected horoscopes into the night sky and referenced the zodiac signs, planets, and natal charts of the visitors to the shop, was responsible for putting in motion the novel’s happy ending. The story’s structure was a bit jarring because some key information wasn’t revealed until very near the end. 

The resolution seemed somewhat quick and contrived, and I’m actually left wondering if I missed something. Overall a unique read that has me wanting to revisit my own natal chart and review what planets reside in my celestial houses.

I finished reading this book on the plane to Sarasota, Christmas 2024!