But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. The author uses Japanese folklore elements to effectively craft an engaging story that also questions the power structures of heaven and earth, male and female, human and yokai.Ī narrative that will engage fans of the genre with a much-needed non-Western setting. Despite his resentment in being a prize, prince Taro also finds himself drawn to Mari. Akira, son of a ghost-yokai and foreign human father, and in love with Mari, follows her to the city and is recruited into the yokai resistance. Since the death of the empress, yokai have been hunted down, killed, and enslaved with impunity. Because Mari is plain, she is trained in combat from an early age to enter the competition and steal the imperial fortune-a huge risk, as many of the contestants die, and if her true identity is discovered, death is certain. They marry human men and abscond with their possessions to support the clan. Mari is from the clan of Animal Wife yokai, strikingly beautiful women who appear human but who also have a monstrous yokai form.

The empress of Honoku has always been chosen from among human women, through a contest of surviving the elements and demon yokai of the seasonal rooms of the imperial palace. A contest to choose the next empress of Honoku has three characters making decisions that will shape the empire and the fate of an enslaved people.

Jean emiko