How many books are there in this series?

The Where the River Meets the Moon series consists of five books in total. Three are completed, and two are currently in development. Together, they trace the lives of a group of earthquake survivors from childhood through adulthood across changing genres and life stages.

Book I – Where the River Meets the Moon: The Meili Story

This middle-grade novel follows Xue Xiao—later known as the “Coke Boy”—through his primary school years, alongside his childhood companion, Ma Yu, and their close-knit group of friends. Set between 2000 and 2003, the story revolves around a mysterious tragedy on a snow mountain in 1990, where seventeen mountaineers from a Chinese–Japanese expedition perished and were never recovered. At the age of ten, Xue Xiao and his friends become determined to uncover the truth and restore the forgotten stories of the lost climbers. The book explores themes of childhood, memory, inherited trauma, nostalgia, and the early formation of moral courage.

Book II – Where the River Meets the Moon: The Ballad of Youth

Set during junior high school, this lower Young Adult novel centers on East Junior High’s basketball team, the Wolfpack, as they struggle to regroup after their former captain, Fu Cheng, transfers to a rival school. The team’s pursuit of a provincial championship becomes a story of rivalry, loyalty, and resilience. Framed as a first-person memoir written by a nineteen-year-old earthquake survivor recovering from PTSD in a mental health facility in New Zealand, the novel reflects on friendship, loss, commemoration, and adolescent identity. As both an immigrant and a survivor, the narrator uses memory and storytelling to heal.

Book III – Where the River Meets the Moon: Stardust

This Young Adult novel follows Xue Xiao and his peers through high school, with the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake as its central rupture. The first half portrays their lives before the disaster—full of friendship, first love, conflict, and the sweetness and bitterness of growing up. The second half examines the aftermath of the earthquake, focusing on disability, autonomy, survivorship, and the formation of selfhood in the wake of irreversible loss. Stardust serves as the emotional and thematic core of the entire series.

Book IV – Where the River Meets the Moon: The Grad Club (forthcoming)

Planned as a New Adult novel, this book follows Xue Xiao and his friends through college and early adulthood. After high school, they take diverging paths—becoming wildlife photographers, teachers, composers, entrepreneurs, and online creators—while carrying the lingering trauma of the earthquake. Though distance and time pull them apart, their shared memories of East High and the disaster continue to draw them back together at pivotal moments in life. The book is expected in 2028.

Book V – Dream Girl’s Diary: What Should I Say About Love or Death (forthcoming)

This adult literary–contemporary crossover novel is a spin-off sequel set during the COVID-19 pandemic. It follows Xue Xiao and his friends as they reunite amid a global crisis, illness, and personal loss. Centred on a family’s fight against cancer, the novel explores grief, endurance, love, and reconnection. It serves as a tribute not only to survivors of the Wenchuan Earthquake, but to survivors of all forms of trauma—from natural disasters to disease, to private catastrophes of the heart. The book is expected in 2030.