The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King

genre: magical realism

Monica Tsai loves coding on her computer - not only does it stretch her brain and make her happy, but she feels like what she's working on can really help people.  The project she's working on with her professor, called Ember, will hopefully one day be a way for the internet to really help people connect in a visceral way.  Coding also helps her avoid thinking about the thing that is most stressing her out: the aging of her beloved grandparents that raised her.  When she is able to use her computer to help find her grandmother's long lost cousin in Shanghai, it sparks a friendship with someone new as well as a window into the history of her family and the pencil company they once owned in China.  

This story, told both in real time and letters, in a story in two time periods.  While we are experiencing Monica's contemporary life and slow burn sapphic love story, we are also experiencing life in China before and during the First World War through the eyes of Monica's grandmother Yun.  The special magical ability Yun and her cousin Meng learn from their own mothers will start a chain of circumstances that proves to separate them in ways both large and small.  

What an intriguing premise and interesting story!  I loved Monica's crotchety old Grandma Yun, especially on the audio she is such a strong presence, her heart full of so much pain from the trauma she's endured and the choices she's made.  This book is, ultimately, about owning our own stories and about the power of forgiveness to help us move on and continue to create the kind of life we most want.  I loved the pencil company thread and even their ability was unique in a way I did not expect.  There is a bit of a strange turn that it takes about 2/3 of the way through that I didn't quite understand but I decided to let my questions fade and just enjoy it for what it was.  I feel like I learned more about Chinese history and found even more sympathy for the families that called it home during so many different conflicts.