Review: Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon
★★★★★
“My favourite book club book so far — I absolutely loved it and can’t wait to read the next one.”
“I listened to the audiobook and found myself excited to press play every time. It celebrates life and our flaws — no one’s perfect, and that’s okay. It was powerful, beautifully written, and made me reflect on grief in ways I hadn’t for a long time.”
“I almost sat this one out after losing my mum this year, but I’m so glad I didn’t. It wasn’t the breakdown I feared — instead, it left me feeling oddly comforted. It reminded me of the lasting impact people have on one another, even when they’re gone.”
Every once in a while, you stumble across a book that feels like it’s holding you as you read — and Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon is exactly that.
I actually came to this series the “wrong” way around. I first read How to Hold Someone in Your Heart after being sent a proof, completely unaware it was the second in Mizuki Tsujimura’s tender, magical series. I fell so deeply in love with its world that I immediately went back to the beginning — and honestly, I’m so glad I did. While you can absolutely read them in any order, Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon gives you that beautiful foundation, introducing the mysterious Ayumi and the quiet wonder of his gift: reuniting the living with the dead for one night only, under the light of a full moon.
There’s something incredibly comforting about the way Tsujimura writes about loss. Though the premise might sound heavy — grief, death, the finality of goodbye — the novel manages to be surprisingly light on its feet. The stories are threaded with warmth, humour and the gentle absurdities of human nature. Each meeting feels like its own short story: a son looking for his mother’s land deeds, a teenager haunted by guilt, a man desperate to understand why his fiancée disappeared. Every encounter is fleeting yet powerful, leaving both characters and readers changed.
What I loved most is how cared for you feel by the author. The writing is delicate but assured, and Ayumi — our teenage go-between — carries the weight of these encounters with such quiet grace. His presence gives the book its heartbeat: steady, thoughtful, and full of compassion.
Our Brunch Book Club members felt it too. Many admitted they’d been nervous to read something so entwined with grief, but found it unexpectedly healing. One member described it as “comforting and beautifully written,” another said it “reminded me of the lasting impact people have even when they’re gone.” So many of us rated it 4.5 or 5 stars — not because it shattered us, but because it soothed something tender within.
Review by Taragh
The next book in the series…
The much-anticipated follow-up novel to Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon picks up seven years later with go-between Ayumi, a young man caught between the demands of everyday life and his extraordinary gift: reuniting the living with the dead.
Ayumi has a rare and mysterious ability, inherited from his grandmother. During a full moon and guided by strict rules, he arranges meetings between souls who have passed and those they left behind. However, after years in this role, Ayumi begins to question its meaning and the impact it has had on his life. As he juggles his supernatural calling with his full-time job as a toy designer in Tokyo, Ayumi quietly wonders if he will ever find the peace he so often helps others attain. Meanwhile, he assists five individuals, including: a rising film star who seeks closure with the father who abandoned him; a passionate amateur historian longing to meet a forgotten 16th-century warlord; and a former cook whose repeated requests to visit an upper-class woman in the afterlife have been denied—but who refuses to give up on love.
Luminous, magical, and deeply heartwarming, How to Hold Someone in Your Heart is an unforgettable novel from bestselling storyteller Mizuki Tsujimura and a profound meditation on living without regret, embracing the unexpected, and cherishing the fleeting moments we’re given.
