The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King — A Tender, Time-Splitting Tale of Memory and Magic

Read time: 5 minutes

🎧 Listened in audio
📢 Narrated by Carolyn Kang, Jodi Long, Sura Siu, Crystal Yu
⏱ Duration: 14 hours
🏷️ Publisher: HarperCollins / William Morrow
📅 Published: June 3, 2025
Read as a part of Goodreads monthly challenge – Star Selection

Book Blurb:

A Reese’s Book Club pick, The Phoenix Pencil Company is a generational tale that blends historical fiction with a brush of fantasy. Set between war-torn 1930s Shanghai and 2018 California, it follows Monica Tsai and her grandmother Yun, two women bound by memory, love, and a secret craft that lets them “Reforge” pencils to resurrect the written memories inside. As Monica seeks to uncover the story of her grandmother’s lost cousin, their intertwined timelines reveal a legacy of survival, sacrifice, and the ways in which words can both haunt and heal.

Let’s talk about the book:

This novel sits in that quiet, powerful space where historical fiction and fantasy gently overlap. While the magical element (the ability to Reforge memories through pencils) sounds whimsical on paper, the emotional weight of the story is anything but light. The sections set in wartime Shanghai are raw and unflinching, especially in how they depict the limited choices and constant fear experienced by women during that era. The audiobook format amplifies this pain beautifully; you don’t just hear Yun’s story, you feel it settle into your chest.

The dual timeline works beautifully here, especially as the narrators breathe life into the women of the Tsai family. The transition from Yun’s 1937 Shanghai to Monica’s digital age feels almost cinematic in the audio rendition. The relationships between the four central women: Monica, her grandmother Yun, Meng, and Louise, are the heart of this book. Each woman is sharply defined, each voice distinct, and the multiple narrators bring an added richness to the listening experience. These aren’t just generational connections; they’re emotional echoes, shaped by secrets, sacrifice, and love passed down imperfectly. It’s tender, frustrating, and deeply human.

That said, the story does leave a few threads dangling. Meng’s character absolutely deserved more space, especially given how heavily her presence was teased. Same with the rifts between Monica’s parents and grandparents; a bit more clarity could have tied everything into a satisfying full circle. Fourteen hours of listen time and still a couple of unanswered family rifts left me mildly unsatisfied. But those emotional beats between Yun, Monica, Weng, and Louise? Worth every minute.

Would I recommend it?

This magical realism family saga with historical fiction roots and emotional depth is worth your time if you love character-driven stories about memory, inheritance, and women’s resilience. The audiobook experience amplifies the multi-voiced beauty, though the unresolved bits kept it from perfection.

If you liked this…

Here are five books that should vibe well with The Phoenix Pencil Company fans, especially its intergenerational women, Chinese history, and gentle magic of memory and storytelling.

1. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
   If the braided timelines and question of “who owns our stories?” hooked you, this one is a natural next step. Dual narrative between a Japanese teenager’s diary and a novelist who finds it washed ashore in Canada, this book blends metafiction, family history, and quiet speculative touches in a way that feels thematically adjacent to Reforging memories.
2. The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan
   This is for readers drawn to Yun’s past, dementia, and the ache of lost or obscured memories. The book follows three generations of Chinese and Chinese American women as a daughter translates her mother’s memoirs after a dementia diagnosis. The story explores buried family history, migration, and the power of writing as an act of reclamation.
3. The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
   If you liked the historical setting plus threads of the uncanny, this one scratches that itch. Set in 1930s colonial Malaya with intertwining perspectives and a lush sense of place, this story mixes folklore, superstition, and mystery with questions of fate and obligation across class and gender.
4. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
   For readers who want another sweeping, multigenerational, war-touched family saga with women at its emotional core. This story traces a Korean family across Japan over decades of occupation, war, and displacement. No overt magic, but the emotional weight, generational secrets, and questions of legacy feel very aligned.
5. The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang
   A strong fit for readers specifically interested in Chinese women’s struggles under patriarchy and tradition. Historical fiction centered on Chinese women navigating expectations, pain, and resilience, this book focuses on bodily autonomy, inherited trauma, and the cost of survival, echoing Yun’s and Meng’s sacrifices.

The Pencil That Writes History

Did the open-ended threads work for you, or were you also hoping for more closure, especially when it came to Meng? Let’s talk unresolved endings and emotional payoff in the comments.

Book Links:

Want to purchase this or any of your favorite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing using the sites below. These sites work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your book orders. #SupportLocal

• Indiebookstores.ca
• Bookshop.org
• Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover
• Find more bookish info on Allison King’s author page
• Check out more books from Harper Audio and William Morrow