The Lost Souls of Benzaiten

By Kelly Murashige (New York: Soho Teen, 2024, 304 pp., $19.99, hardcover)

In “The Lost Souls of Benzaiten” by Kelly Murashige, a delicate and delightful quest begins when Machi, a teenager who no longer can speak, motions through her daily existence. Through the loving plea of her parents, she has cycled through several doctors and therapists to try to help her find her path forward. Losing the one therapist she felt understood her, sets her back, reinforcing her fear of being left behind, forgotten and invisible. The all too real feelings of a teen navigating through identity and social pressures make a dramatic shift, when in an abandoned Shinto shrine with a red torii gate, Machi makes a wish to become a robot vacuum. Her wish, heard by Benzaiten, a Japanese deity, one of the Seven Gods of Fortune, is not accepted.

“What’s so bad about being a human?”, the girl asks. “It seems so amazing.”

I shake my head. Being human is a lot of things, but amazing is not one of them.

Then I shake my head again, harder. I don’t know what I’m thinking. This girl is human too.

“What about a do-over?” She swings her legs off the box. “I can’t grant your wish. We don’t work like that. I can, however, help you learn to appreciate the human world and find your voice again.”(p. 22)
Benzaiten, who is vibrant, charming, beautiful and definitely “seen,”boldly grabs Machi by the hand to show her the simple joys to be found in Japantown, scooping for goldfish, winning a stuffed Daruma, and slurping on kakigori (shave ice). Benzaiten is enamored by the living, but she can’t help but also be drawn to the lost souls of the wistful departed children. When they are together, Machi can also see the beauty in the unfulfilled wishes of the children that the goddess wants to protect, shelter and keep safe. While Benzaiten gets caught up in caring for the lost souls, Machi is once again on her own. Through the gentle encouragement of her new therapist to visit a café or shelter and to try to interact with humans, and her efforts to reach out to her mother who is dealing with the loss of her grandparents, Machi begins to make genuine connections.

In her debut young adult fantasy “The Lost Souls of Benzaiten,” Kelly Murashige offers a new voice that speaks above the silence, unafraid to delve into the painful realities of teenage struggles, and with a touch of fantasy, offers a bit of magical thinking. Murashige offers a touch of reality in her introduction to the reader, and continues to keep us captivated.

As far as I know, nobody in real life has gone on magical adventures with a Japanese deity after praying to become a robot vacuum cleaner. I imagine, though, almost everyone has experienced at least some of what Machi is dealing with: going through a friendship breakup, losing loved ones, and feeling silenced in a world that’s only ever getting louder.

Born and raised in Hawai‘i, Kelly Murashige is a writer, reader, and dreamer. She writes for both young adult and adult audience and specializes in contemporary fiction with fantastical twists based on Japanese mythology and culture.