Find Romantasy Books
We Burned So Bright
TJ Klune
4.5
The Phoenix Pencil Company: A Novel
by Allison King
Categories
About this book
Monica Tsai is a self-proclaimed recluse and college freshman, more comfortable navigating the digital world than her own. Her life is anchored by her deep devotion to her elderly grandparents, particularly her grandmother, Yun, whose vibrant history is slowly dimming as her memory fades. While working on a coding project designed to connect strangers, Monica encounters a mysterious woman whose gift of a single pencil triggers a cascade of startling revelations.
The pencil is no ordinary writing tool; it is a relic from the Phoenix Pencil Company, a site of hidden magic in 1940s Shanghai. As WWII threatens to consume their world, Yun and her cousin, Meng, discover they possess the generational ability to "Reforge" pencils, imbuing their writing with the power to manifest memories. What begins as a curiosity transforms into a dangerous game of espionage as the women are forced to weaponize their secret for survival.
As Monica unearths these long-buried truths, she must reconcile her grandmother’s harrowing past with her own search for connection. This resonant tale weaves together two women’s lives across decades, exploring how the stories we inherit—and the ones we choose to rewrite—can bridge the gaps of time and mend a fractured family legacy.
Available Formats
Kindle: $0.00 Audiobook: $0.00
What readers are saying
sharon f. leffPencils Are Mightier Than Swords!
"Although the story/stories become too long, the characters shine especially Monica and her grandmother. The magic of these phoenix pencils and these women able to decode and transmit messages becomes the priceless commodity of those seeking information and power. So much of their lives had been invested in translating the stories of others that each generation worried for the next and the opportunity to write, live, and remember their own stories. ["
September 2, 2025 Verified Purchase
WinstonTimely novel as we endure and rise above for times like this
"As we get closer and closer to 2027 where global monitors believe a new war will arise between nations, Allison King has written and published a perfect and timely novel for the tensions of the day, the past and our future. Along with the keys to diffusing the path towards war for those who are truly invested in working towards peace in the horizon. Seamlessly flipping between the key eras and times of 2018 and 1949, Allison masterfully places the reader in both eras authentically and realistically. Such a skill from any author takes time, mastery and balance that very few are ever able to realize in their writings, but Allison manages to accomplish this with rare aplomb in her first novel. She takes us through the harrowing and endearing perspectives of well built and established characters; each who give us a combined message that we ignore at our own peril: That if we are to realize a better future, we must study the nationalists and communists and their warring feuds of the past. All in order to understand the ruin which would befall all sides of humanity if we are to ever repeat their respective mistakes. The key characters in the Phoenix Pencil company fought to reforge again and again, generation to generation, all so that their stories may one day inspire advocates of peace instead of strife. That their respective struggles and learned truths from the past were written with hope, pain and suffering to the optimism that those listeners of today would learn and not repeat the mistakes of yesterday. May we take such lessons to heart, and may they light the inner fire for peace in our contemporary generations so that they set their feet on the right path. As one of the book's heroes announces to us all near the end: "The Phoenix is pulsing, my wrist is on fire. Never have I been surer of myself yet also more alone." You are not alone. Let us not let her down and may those of us who hear, carry her story forward so that she and those like her, with their ever-strengthening lights, never stand alone. ["
December 26, 2025 Verified Purchase
Ginger Frascainteresting and fun read
"I really liked the characters in this story. It was interesting, but the reforging was a little weird for me. But again, a heartfelt story and sweet characters. ["
October 17, 2025 Verified Purchase
Blair A. Gyamfifamily saga
"Interesting concept. I loved all the characters. I never was fully drawn into the book, but it was good enough to continue to read. A lot of story to follow simultaneously ["
February 9, 2026 Verified Purchase
