I had already been waiting for this book before it became available on NetGalley when I first heard about it almost a year ago, so thank you so much to the publisher for granting me access to The Phoneix Pencil Company. If you love historical fiction, if you love magical realism, if you love multigeneral stories, please, please read this book! Despite going in with such high expectations, I was not disappointed in the least bit. Switching between present-day and WWII, between a granddaughter and her grandmother, all with a magical pencil company at the heart of the story. This was such a beautiful story. Book clubs will eat this up! June can't get here soon enough.

First, let me admit that I did not realize The Phoenix Pencil Company is not really my thing, so I am admittedly not the best person to provide a review. The abstract mention of a multi-generational history hooked me. I will say that it was a really interesting story of four generations of Asian women with a unique gift that complicated the course of their lives from the survival of WWI China through their separation in WWII and reunification through a strange and mysterious journey in modern times. I think it is a really good read for the right audience.

This book is charming, heartfelt and at times profound. It is dual POV, with Monica keeping a journal in 2018 and her grandmother writing a letter about her life, starting with her childhood in Shanghai. Both narratives are distinct and important to the overall story.

This is a beautiful story about family, about connections. It is about how our choices shape our own stories: past, present and future.

I found the comparison between the pencils and the EMBRS program to be a fascinating examination of how we connect, how we remember, and how we share our stories.

Thank you to William Morrow for the opportunity to review this ARC.

Thank you Willam Morrow for the review copy! I saw this cover, and the intriguing book title, and just had to check it out. What a delightful surprise, a family generational story with a mix of sci fi in a way that worked for my non sci fi reader heart; it felt more like the kind of dashes of magical realism that I love in well developed character driven stories. I loved the history in this book, I know so very little of Shanghai and cultural/family nuances so the exploration of family and history, context and culture, of individual and family identity all made this a tremendous win for me. I can't wait to recommend this to many readers, this book will find a special place in many reader's hearts and will be a welcome addition to book club line ups!

A found this to be a really special and unique read. I'll admit to knowing nothing really about Shanghai or this time of its history. That alone was interesting, but the family and stories across generations were beautifully intertwined. The magic added to the story with biggest themes being family and who do we owe our stories to. Thought provoking and still just enjoyable as a work of fiction.

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King is a debut novel that combines family secrets, magical realism, and a sprinkle of espionage. The story follows Monica Tsai, a college student who is stuck between two worlds: should she stay on track with her computer science degree or hit pause to care for her beloved grandmother, Meng, who’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer's? But just when Monica thinks life can’t get more complicated, she discovers her grandmother’s jaw-dropping secret - Meng can use a magical pencil heart and literally inject them into her veins to read what the writer has written. It's called Reforging.
The novel flips between two timelines: Monica’s modern-day struggles and Meng’s past life in war-torn Shanghai. As a young girl, Meng and her cousin Yun survive by selling handmade pencils, using their mysterious power that helps them navigate a dangerous life of espionage in the International Settlement. It's never truly discussed why or how they receive these abilities. We just accept it as it is.
What starts as a tender tale of grandmother and granddaughter quickly unravels into a sweeping saga of family, betrayal, and secrets. Meng’s hidden history comes to light as she reveals the untold stories of her past, and along the way, Monica forms an unexpected bond with Louise, a fellow college student who has her own ties to Meng’s cousin Yun. Monica begins working on a tech company her Professor has created called EMBRS—a data heavy online diary. I found the EMBRS portion of the book uninteresting. It was a confusing program to me, while I get the relationship between the pencils and the diary, I just didn't connect with it the technology.
Meng is reframing her past as we read it, weaving us into her survival story. While the narrative weaves between timelines, at times, it feels a little hard to follow who’s speaking to whom, and some of the espionage elements feel like they get brushed over. I would’ve loved to see more of the gritty details of life in China during these turbulent time and how Meng and Yun interacted with the people the government deemed as enemies. This part was glossed over.

The story is truly about how we keep stories and how we share them.

As much as I wasn’t completely sold on the EMBRS subplot, or the romance portion, the magical realism at the heart of the novel is undeniably unique and intriguing. And it’s always a pleasure to see fresh voices from Asian-American authors entering the literary world. Allison King clearly has a ton of talent, and I’m excited to see what she’ll write next!

I loved this book. It's an excellent story about connections, family, and stories. As a generation dies out, their stories are permanently lost to us, and this book explores what it means to preserve stories, and the importance and value of preserving their stories, but also the pain of remembering stories that may not necessarily be pleasant. As a Chinese American, I understand Monica's feelings too well, her desires and fears of learning her grandmother's story and how learning the story might change her perspective. I also found the history fascinating. I know most of the history regarding the Shanghai refugees and Taiwan's surveillance, but it was still interesting to read a personal tale.

This was a beautiful story. I loved the mix of historical fiction, magical realism, and the focus on storytelling. Rating 4 stars because I struggled to root for Monica and Louise, the end felt rushed and I needed a bigger redemption arc.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance copy.

The Phoenix Pencil Company spans generations of a Chinese family with a magical secret, That of extracting stories from the pencils that were made in China at the factory. The story takes you through China during 2 wars, going up to the present day. Monica wants to reunite her grandmother Yun with her grandmother's cousin Meng, who lives in China. It makes us question if our personal series will be lost in the future, or who will tell them .
I enjoyed this book and was pleasantly surprised as it was not my usual genre. thank you net galley for the opportunity to read it.

You have 32 great-great-great-grandparents. And some of them were probably very brave. Some were very smart, and some were very good people. Over time, their stories have been lost, likely you do not know any of their stories specifically. If you have done 23 and me, you likely know where they were born and grew up. For most people on earth today, you live in a different country than your great-great-great grandparents did. And so much of our experience, our connections, are wildly different than theirs. And yet, much is the same.

Monica's family's legacy is the Phoenix Pencil company, a manufacturer of pencil in Shanghai. As her grandmother Yun is facing her final days, Monica wants to reconcile her relationship with her cousin Meng. She survived the Chinese civil war (I did have to look up "Chinese civil war" on wikipedia quickly for context) and came to California, leaving her beloved cousin behind. Soon Monica discovers that the pencils are not just pencils but carry the stories within them. And what is a Phoenix but a magical creature that burns and is born from its own ashes.

Highly lyrical and descriptive, The Phoenix Pencil Company is a debut novel that spans generations and continents. The characters change and grow, and there is also a tangential love story that (to me) kind of sprang up out of nowhere. The plot, while simplistic, was hopeful and original. True to the culture and timeline, the story echoes the question, "who owns your story and who will tell it?"

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC. Book to be published June 3, 2025.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read 'The Phoenix Pencil Company, a well done, refreshing and engaging story.

I really enjoyed this story which had a magic system unlike any I have seen before. The story goes back and forth between two young cousins in war time Shanghai and one of those girls, now a grandmother, and her granddaughter in present day. I enjoyed not only the magical aspect of the story and the relationship between grandparents and granddaughter, but also the historical part as well.
The story is well written and a very enjoyable read. I would highly recommend this book.

The Phoenix Pencil Company started out very slowly for me. I grew to like it more and more the further I read, and as the tension built. Ms. King writes complex characters, and I found the relationship between the grandparents and the granddaughter very endearing. The relationship between Monica and Louise was a great slow-building relationship between two women who were very unsure of themselves and each other in this aspect of their lives. I loved how it developed. The magic portrayed in this book is a unique type - I haven't seen it before. It is a blood magic, still with potential to corrupt, but potential to be lifechanging. What was made very clear was the huge toll it took on the practitioner. The way Ms. King intertwined it with giving us glimpses into Chinese culture, especially the culture of those forced to flee China, was entrancing. I recommend this book to anyone who loves plots with twists and turns, history interwoven, and stories where main characters truly find themselves. It was a great read!

I was hooked on this book right away. Great story alternating between time periods as we learn the grandmothers back story. The writing was wonderful. I don’t usually go for stories with a magical element, this was a pleasant surprise. Highly recommend.

Fascinating and heart aching! I really enjoyed the premise and felt deeply for the characters. Incredibly unique--thank you for the ARC!

I was drawn to this title by the premise and description, but ultimately it wasn't a great match for me. I love a good magical realism story, and I also tend to love a multigenerational, multiple POV narrative. Unfortunately, this one felt a little clunky and with too many side threads that didn't seem to go anywhere.

This book grabbed me, held onto me, and I rode this story to the very end! I literally read this in one setting. The story is of two girls living in Shanghai during World War II and how their lives were reshaped by the pencil company their mom‘s ran. Although they were excellent quality, pencils, they also had a little magic. This book kept me turning the pages, and I will be pushing this book into the hands of friends. Thank you for allowing me to read this book as a galley. NetGalley and William Marrow. Stunning work.

It's big words to compare this to Ruth Ozeki's books, but I feel it's justified. Big emotions, big focus on the importance of stories (a person's story and also, to a lesser extent here, the stories we make up). It's an example of a book that uses the "jump between past and present" gimmick really well. It flowed beautifully.

There was an issue with Chinese characters not showing up, which may have been an issue with the fact it's not the finished proof or maybe just my Kindle not being properly up to date, but it did trip me up a few times (not enough to ruin the experience at all, it's not like I could've read them even if they were visible)

A unique blend of history, memory, technology, and magical realism, The Phoenix Pencil Company is a debut that examines the power of storytelling and who gets to own, share, and reshape our personal narratives.

The novel follows Monica Tsai, a college freshman and computer programmer, who spends her days working on an app designed to connect strangers online. While she struggles to form real-life friendships, she finds solace in journaling and caring for her aging grandparents—especially her beloved grandmother, Yun, whose memory is beginning to fade. But via the app she is designing, Monica soon discovers that her family’s history is far richer and more complicated than she ever imagined.

Alternating between Monica in 2018 and Grandmother Yun’s past in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, the novel unveils a hidden legacy of espionage, resistance, and a mysterious family gift. As Yun and her cousin Meng work at the Phoenix Pencil Company, they uncover an extraordinary ability. In the present, Monica stumbles upon a single pencil that leads her to a long-lost relative, sparking a journey to unearth the truths buried in her family’s past. As she sifts through decades of untold stories, she must reckon with the role of memory, privacy, and digital footprints in shaping the present and future.

Inspired by King’s own family history, The Phoenix Pencil Company is a thought-provoking novel that celebrates the resilience of generations and the enduring power of words and personal narratives.
#ThePhoenixPencilCompany #AllisonKing #HistoricalFiction #MagicalRealism #FoundFamily #NetGalley #WilliamMorrow

While the premise was nice, the writing was... not what I expected. I wanted more from the characters because I felt that what was on the front cover and the front flap was not what we were given.