REVIEW: The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King
Book #59 of 2025, done!
***Despite my email a couple of weeks ago, you may have noticed I'm back to sending out individual reviews instead of a weekly digest. Why? Because several of you reached out and said you actually prefer getting each book in its own email. The people have spoken, and I’m listening. Now, back to the review.***
📖BOOK: The Phoenix Pencil Company by Elizabeth Brooks
🎧FORMAT: Audiobook via Prince William County Library and Libby
📚GENRE: Historical Fiction/Family Saga
📅RELEASED: June 3rd, 2025
⏱️AUDIOBOOK LENGTH: 13 hrs 49 mins (listened at 1.75x speed)
⭐RATING: ★★★★☆ (3.5/5)
👉 PURCHASE: Click Here to Purchase
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🧳SYNOPSIS:
”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.”
💬THE VIBE:
Dreamy but grounded. Tech meets memory. Family history meets soft speculative magic. Nostalgic, tender, and a little haunting.
💡STANDOUT ELEMENTS:
A rare mix of historical fiction and speculative magic that worked
A multi-generational plot that unfolds like a puzzle
Characters whose decisions echo through time
🧠WHAT STUCK:
I loved the intergenerational thread—the way past and present blurred, and how legacy played a quiet but powerful role in every chapter.
👎WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:
It lagged a bit in the middle, and some sections felt like they took the scenic route to get where they were going. But even then, the scenery was lovely.
🤔IF YOU LIKE:
Cross-generational stories with gentle magical realism
Softly unfolding plots and rich character relationships
Fiction rooted in legacy and loss
🙅♀️IF YOU DON’T LIKE:
Slower-paced novels that simmer more than sprint
Fiction that blends genres (realism + magical elements)
Narratives that take time before delivering resolution
📝FINAL VERDICT:
3.5 stars.
A solid, emotionally resonant debut that blends memory, magic, and family legacy in a thoughtful, poetic way. If you’re patient with a little lag in the middle, the payoff is worth it.
