It was cute? I guess? I didn’t love nor hate this book. I felt utterly mediocre towards it by every definition of middlingness possible. I hope someone else out there loves it though. Eventually.

While I loved the family story and the human connection, neither the EMBRS plot line nor the magic rules of this universe worked for me. I can usually roll with some rough edges in speculative rules, but in this age of digital surveillance, EMBRS was a hard sell. More than that, the magic rules around the pencils themselves were distracting from the main core of the story which was more about family, memory, and generational experience.

I will look for more by Allison King—the heart of the novel is beautiful even if some of the more speculative elements fell flat for me.

Whoo boy. I started out really liking this book, and ended up not liking it as much as I thought I would, and that makes me sad, because there was a lot that was good in it. I particularly liked the story of Meng and Wong Yun, and I really wish that had just been the book. But I found the framing story with Monica to be tedious, because I found Monica to be tedious. I felt for her, she's dealing with some tough things. But I felt she was so naive and whiny that I lost interest. I wanted more of the story of Meng and Wong Yun, their experiences as girls and young women. That was what really was interesting. That and the light fantasy element. I had a hard time believing that Monica could be so naive about her life, and the whole thing with EMBRS just really turned me off. Shame too, because this book had such an original and interesting premise.

Phoenix Paper CompanyYou know those books you didn’t even know you were looking for, but once you find them, you absolutely fall in love? That’s The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King. This musical, magical novel sweeps you up with its captivating melody and doesn’t let go. Riding the recent wave of magical realism favorites like The House on the Cerulean Sea, The Phoenix Pencil Company sets a very high bar. Told through dual points of view—one younger, one more mature—the story feels rich and layered. Fair warning: you’ll probably have a craving for Arby’s while reading, and you’ll definitely find yourself wishing your pencils were a little bit magic too. This is a real winner of a book!

Thank you so much to the publisher (HarperCollins) and the author for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy!

This book is extremely timely as we find out more and more how our data is being shared online. I love how the author built a fictional story around this very controversial topic. No matter how you feel about it, you understand the characters' points of view and how they change their minds about their role in technology and storytelling, and how we all have a role in it.

The magical realism piece of this book was really well done because it didn't interfere by being all too random, but it also was a special gift that only a few people have.

I thought the relationship between the main character, Monica, and her grandparents, was the biggest reason that Monica can make the decisions she had to make. The theme of familial love being the greatest strength was so apparent in the book.

I loved this story, and can't wait to see what the author writes next!

What a debut! Put simplistically, it’s a beautiful story about family, war, loss, grief, memory, connection, and magic.

I’ll admit that it took me a little bit to get into it, but once I did, I read, teared up, and read more.

Allison King is definitely an author to watch and I’m looking forward to reading her future tales. *The Phoenix Pencil Company* is a definite recommendation.



Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the DRC

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Two girls learn their family business from their mothers. Set in war torn China, the cousins keep their business and abilities secret from the Japanese. Life comes between them and they reconnect through others as elderly women.

4.5 stars! Everything about this book is so fascinating.

For her 90th birthday, Monica seeks to reunite her grandmother, Yun, and her estranged cousin, Meng. While working on a program for “radical sharing”—an online journal that connects people with similar stories, she finally finds Meng via a social media post. Upon reaching out to her, Meng simply sends a pencil.

This pencil unravels a family secret. The women in their family have the ability to Reforge a pencil’s words.

We read Monica’s perspective through her virtual journal and Yun’s, through handwritten letters. While Monica’s journal entries focus on her grandparents’ deteriorating health, Yun fights against the clock to recall her life before her memories vanish.

It’s a fantastical take on privacy, or lack of. The internet is forever and so are handwritten notes at The Phoenix Pencil Company.

It tackles family, loss, grief, war, and preserving history and memories.

The change in perspectives and timelines flowed as smoothly as their pencils glided. Truly a fascinating read.

Side note, happy lesbian visibility week to Monica and Louise. Loved them!

Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow Books, and Allison King for an advanced digital copy of The Phoenix Pencil Company in exchange for an honest review.

This debut is a complex blend of historical fiction, love, family and mystical powers imbedded in pencils. Two cousins like the other women in their family share an ability to draw out stories captured in the pencils they make at their factory in China. This ability brings with it a responsibility and power that others want to take advantage of. They are separated by war but reunited many years later when one of the granddaughters is involved with a research program in America. Dual timelines in multiple countries can be as confusing as trying to tell where a yellow number 2 pencil hails from but the unique characters and deep connections will hold your attention. It will also make you ache to hold a pencil and try to feel what stories it can share. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

4 1/2 stars

This is an interesting story based on historical events, but with a fantastical but believable premise. It’s set in both the late 1930s-40s and in the present day in Cambridge , Massachusetts. The characters are realistic and believable. I kept finding myself thinking that I know people like them – without the fantasy power that they hold.

The book is told in alternating stories and touches on a variety of subjects: war and espionage, LGBTQ, dementia, business, romance, family and the secrets families have, and friendship. Much of the book focuses on computer apps and how to preserving family stories. The book is set in Shanghai, Taiwan, and the United States. The wars discussed in the book include WWII and the Chinese Civil War of Communist China vs Nationalist China.

The fantasy aspect of this book revolves around pencils made in the Phoenix Pencil Company in Shanghai. Wong Yun’s parents own the factory. Her mother and her aunt have the ability to Reforge pencils, a magical process that allows them to “read” what the pencil has been used to write. This allows them to help with the war effort when Wong Yun’s husband heads off to fight. Her niece, Meng, also has the ability. Yun will also learn how to do this. It is a skill that she will keep for her entire long life.

Monica Tsai is Yun’s granddaughter. She was abandoned by her parents when she was very young and left with her grandparents. The two dote on her, and she’s loves them and will do anything she can to protect them from whatever life throws their way. Monica is a computer engineer in New England, helping to develop an app that seeks connections between people around the world, primarily through journaling. Monica loves her work, and she’s very good at it. She uses the app to connect with her grandmother’s cousin. She and Yun haven’t seen each other in many decades. In forming the connection, Monica also finds a new friend. The two of them will form a very close relationship.

This tale is heartbreaking, tear inducing at times, but overall a call to always do the right thing and to live your own life.

I highly recommend this book.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I thank all involved for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

"In this dazzling debut novel, a hidden and nearly forgotten magic - of Reforging pencils, bringing the memories they contain back to life - holds the power to transform a young woman's relationship with her grandmother, and to mend long-lost connections across time and space.

Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer, journaling the details of her ordinary life and coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-proclaimed recluse, she's always struggled to make friends and, as a college freshman, finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their nineties, and Monica worries about them constantly - especially her grandmother, Yun, who survived two wars in China before coming to the States, and whose memory has begun to fade.

Though Yun rarely speaks of her past, Monica is determined to find the long-lost cousin she was separated from years ago. One day, the very program Monica is helping to build connects her to a young woman, whose gift of a single pencil holds a surprising clue. Monica's discovery of a hidden family history is exquisitely braided with Yun's own memories as she writes of her years in Shanghai, working at the Phoenix Pencil Company. As WWII rages outside their door, Yun and her cousin, Meng, learn of a special power the women in their family possess: the ability to Reforge a pencil's words. But when the government uncovers their secret, they are forced into a life of espionage, betraying other people's stories to survive.

Combining the cross-generational family saga and epistolary form of A Tale for the Time Being with the uplifting, emotional magic of The Midnight Library, Allison King's stunning debut novel asks: who owns and inherits our stories? The answers and secrets that surface on the page may have the unerasable power to reconnect a family and restore a legacy."

This is the most beautiful and ingenious cover design I have seen in years.

Once I got started I enjoyed this, it took a bit to get into it though. I have just lost interest in reading historical fiction at all so the startup part of this book failed to intrigue me but I think many will enjoy it more than I did.

Allison King's debut, "The Phoenix Pencil Company," felt truly special to me – it weaves together history, magical realism, and deep family emotion in a really unique and poignant way. I was completely captivated by the core concept of the 'Reforging pencils' and the magic tied to accessing memories contained within them. It serves as such a moving way to explore the main character Monica's connection to her grandmother, Yun, particularly as Yun navigates memory loss. I found the way King balanced the present-day story with the unfolding history of Monica's grandparents, including their wartime past, incredibly affecting and thoughtfully done.

The novel explores profound themes – memory, identity, intergenerational connection, how stories are preserved – all handled with a tender and heartfelt tone that really resonated with me. The relationships portrayed, both the deep bond between Monica and her grandparents and her own developing connections, felt like the true emotional heart of the book.

While I was deeply invested in this central family story and the beautiful magic of the pencils, perhaps for me, one or two of the secondary plotlines didn't feel quite as fully explored by the novel's end compared to the main narrative's richness. But honestly, this felt like a very minor point within such an expansive and moving story.

Overall, "The Phoenix Pencil Company" was a powerful and beautifully written novel that I found deeply memorable. It’s an impressive debut that blends magic and realism seamlessly to tell an intimate yet expansive story about love, memory, and the vital importance of connection across generations.

This genre of magical realism either soars or falls for me - this novel landed somewhere in the middle. Reminiscent of The Storied Life of AJ Fickery or Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookshop, the novel follows a young woman who learns that her family's seemingly innocuous pencil company hides a fantastical secret. I enjoyed the themes of family, connection, and memory, but wasn't a huge fan of the prose itself. Given that this is a pretty core factor of magical realism for me, I struggled to enjoy the story as much as I wanted. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the unexpected queer romance and the thoughtfulness and care paid to each of the main characters. I wish the third-act twist of the romance hadn't occurred the way it did, but ultimately forgive the choice. I also loved the modern connection forged between social media, pencil, and stories.

The Phoenix Pencil Company was an interesting story that focused on the bonds within a family, the stories we all create, and the power of shared memories and lessons. We weave through generations and hear from an Asian-American college student and her elderly grandmother who lived through two wars. The women in their family have a special power where they can "reforge" the pencils their business creates and uncover all of the memories from the user of that pencil. That helped a lot in wartime, but it also created some lasting scars.

I enjoyed the combination of magical realism, history, romance, and contemporary fiction all in one novel. I really liked the characters, especially Monica's grandparents and their adoration of Arby's and their thrifty tendencies. This book made me miss my great aunt a little extra hard and wish I could still learn about the ins and outs of her long life, particularly as she succumbed to Alzheimer's. The ending of this book made me smile, and I look forward to more from the writer.

I’m not usually a historical fiction person, but the premise of this book was so interesting that I just knew I had to read it. The writing and story were so beautiful, and I loved getting to read the changes each year brought to the family and friends of the main characters. This book was just so unique and well made.

I liked that this title did not rehash a WWII historical fiction narrative that I've already read a dozen times. To me, the characters had a fresh perspective, the plot was not predictable, and the characters had flaws they recognized. This would make a good book club pick, as there are many themes and character choices to discuss.

Disclaimer: I received an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. This is spoiler-free and focuses on the reading experience.
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Synopsis:
Monica Tsai just wants to reconnect her grandmother to her estranged cousin, Meng. Using her software engineering knowledge, she finds Meng through another college student's social media activity. What starts off as a desire for reunion unveils a family secret that Monica now has to learn before her grandmother, Yun, loses her memories to a devastating diagnosis.

Told through epistolary format (journal entries, letters, and notes), readers are treated to a story spanning two wars, the rise of the digital age, and how pencils somehow last them all.


My thoughts:
Seeing both Monica's and Yun's stories interwoven to show how the past informs the future was an emotional rollercoaster. You can sense Yun's desperation to record as much as she could remember. You can feel with Monica of how she's handling everything, from the family secret, the diagnosis, and even budding feelings for a girl she just met. Both character voices were distinct and I could believe that these entries were written by real people.

That's saying something because I didn't like Monica and Yun was long-winded to the point of affecting the pacing. But their stories, their reactions, and the events that play out couldn't stop me from finding out how they grew as people. This is a heavy read at points and I did have to take breaks. But once I got to 70%? I was blowing through, wanting to know the ending.


Overall:
I give this book 4/5 stars.

There was a lot of relatability, even with the speculative nature. The reason it's not a 5/5 stars for me is due to pacing and some of the subplot beats felt thrown in as minor commentary than serving the overall story.

However, the themes of human connection and importance of sharing your truth (no matter how ugly it may get) resonated with me. So while it may not be a 5/5 for me, it might be for you.

This was my first Allison King read and I very much enjoyed it! "The Phoenix Pencil Company" is a captivating read that beautifully intertwines historical fiction and magical realism. Allison King's storytelling shines as she unveils a rich tapestry of family secrets, resilience, and the profound power of storytelling.

One of the most delightful aspects of the book is its exploration of a world where ordinary pencils possess extraordinary magic, capable of bringing memories to life. This magical element adds a unique and enchanting layer to the narrative. The way the author weaves together multiple generations and their intertwined stories is also magical, creating a compelling saga that spans time and cultures. I especially enjoyed King's exploration of themes like memory, identity, and the enduring bonds of family.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for sharing this entertaining read with me. I look forward to discovering more from Allison King.

This is a real genre-bender, with WWII-era historical fiction, grounded fantasy, magical realism, family drama, and queer romance, all with compelling characters and an original and propulsive plot.