This book's has an incredibly rich atmosphere, and the colors, and visual details are beautiful. If I could have read it in one shot, I probably would have loved it, but I put it down and never felt compelled to finish it.

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Anna-Marie McLemore got on my radar last year, when I was lucky enough to receive an e-arc of her debut novel, The Weight of Feathers, which I absolutely adored and was definitely one of my favourite reads last year. So, when I heard she had another book out, I knew I had to read it!

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Of course, as soon as I received the review copy, I started having doubts: "What if this one's not as good as her debut? What if I hate it after savouring it so much?". You know the kind. But let me tell you right now, no such risk! Not liking it? Pffffttt! I LOVED it!

When the Moon Was Ours is a sweet, original read that somehow manages to fuse relevant themes with a simple, everyday story about two fairly unusual teenagers falling in love. And to top it all off, the deal is sealed by McLemore's gorgeous prose, which makes even the simplest of actions sound like pure poetry. And just like that, I was sold!

What I loved most about this book (as is the case with most books I love, if you think about it) were the characters. Not just the main characters, but the whole cast. Everyone has their own space in the story, be it bigger or smaller, and the role that they play in the book does not limit their existence as an individual character: even the minor ones have their own peculiarities, their background and their position in a way that made me really feel like they were their own person at the sidelines. They were just not the ones we were focusing on in telling this story.

As for the main characters, I loved Miel and Sam to bits. Both of them are really complex people, not just because of their past, but at the same time because they start to realise that they have to start thinking about their future as well. Having to deal with a traumatic past is a challenge in itself, but I really liked the fact that this was not the sole focus of either one of the main characters: your teens are the years when you start figuring out not just who you are, but also what kind of person you want to be for the rest of your life. And because it's so difficult to keep up with everything that goes on around us, resisting pressures from society, family, friends and your own set of expectations, it's also that period of time when you realise it's ok to make mistakes, and that you don't have to be stuck with them forever. The trick is surrounding yourself with people you love and trust, and who respect you and accept you no matter what. And that, I believe, is one of the key lessons anyone can take from this book.

But of course, because it is a tiny gem in the great treasure of YA literature this year, the greatest thing about this book is that any one person reading it can have a different take on it. The author does a fantastic job of incorporating so many different themes and points of view, that there is just something for everyone to keep thinking about for days after having finished the book. You can start with diversity and the acceptance of those people who feel "different", be it because they grow roses from their wrist or because their skin is darker or they speak another language; then you can move on to thinking about what makes us who we are, re-thinking the relationship we have with our bodies; you can start considering just how much pressure are we willing to take from society in determining who we have to be, just for the sake of appearances, letting those expectations of ourselves crush the realities of the wonderful being each one of us can be at the full potential of his or her individuality. And if that's still not enough for you, there are loads of prompts to reflect on family, friends, love and so, so much more...

Definitely a book I will re-read in a while, just to see if there is anything else I can pick up on and one I will absolutely force on gently recommend to everyone I know, When the Moon Was Ours is a complete must-read for this year, and Anna-Marie McLemore is an author to really watch out for! ( )

This book had its moments and tending towards the poetic at times, unfortunately it just wasn't for me. The author clearly loves language, but several times I felt as though I lost the strand of the story and the meaning became obscure. To be fair, this does suite a story in which more than one character is transgender. Also, based on the author's note, I got the strong sense that this novel was semi-autobiographical, which adds another layer of interpretation. An interesting book and one I'm certain others will thoroughly enjoy. ( )

This is beautifully written with a moving and meaningful character arc...but for all the poetic words and truth-telling story, it was also, at times, frustratingly repetitive. I have a good memory; I don't need to be told over and over again what colors the Bonner girls' hair are. I have a mind that appreciates subtlety; I don't need the moon symbolism hammered into the story again and again. Worse, the result of that repetition is to shade a delicate and evocative tale with sentimentality and melodrama. ( )

This book is written so tenderly and sweetly and I appreciate it so much for what it does but it also... woof there's just so much that's not my cup of tea in terms of trans writing. Which doesn't mean it's Bad or Bad Representation per se, just not what I want and need--and granted, I'm an adult and in a different stage of my life than the audience of this! Just didn't love it, and found myself wincing a lot. ( )

teen fiction (mature content for older teens), transgender love story with magic. Another transfixing story (no pun intended) filled with luminous prose from Anna-Marie McLemore. ( )

LOVED this book! What a wonderful, magical story that touches on so many issues. ( )

It took me over a month to get through the first half of the book. It took me a night to get through the second half. I'm really glad I persevered and didn't abandon the book, as I was tempted to many times. Because it really is worth it and it pays off.

The prose can be a bit cloying at times, and the author employs way too many metaphors and similes in an attempt to evoke a certain mystical atmosphere. And the narrative takes a roundabout way to get to the point. All this definitely made it hard to read, and it was tough going at times.

And then. A little over half-way done, I suddenly found I didn't want to put the book down. The plot picked up its pace, I didn't notice the idiosyncrasies in the writing style, and I just lost myself in the book. By the time I finished, a book that I was ready to abandon became a book I loved.

McLemore weaves a story about identity. Miel doesn't know who she is or where she comes from, and only has vague memories of her birth family. Sam is a boy born a girl, and is not quite sure what he wants. Even the background characters struggle with identity -- the theme is throughout the story. And the world is a fantastical one where a girl grows roses from her wrist, a boy can hang the moon, pumpkins turn to glass, and a woman can banish heartsickness. Lovely. ( )

I'm giving this one 4 stars even though I had a couple problems with it, because the writing is just so damn beautiful. That's what makes this book divisive, as almost all of the negative reviews I read (and even some of the positive ones) mentioned overuse of metaphor and flowery language as a turn-off, while many positive reviews mention that as the reason they loved it. I'm definitely in the second camp, the gorgeous prose kept pulling me in. At a time when I was looking for distractions from my own brain, reading this book was perfect. It was so easy to shut everything out and just fall into the way McLemore uses language. I also already love magic realism and the lush writing style that tends to accompany it. This book looked like muted pastels and various shades of earthy red and smelled like cardamom and cinnamon.

I love queer narratives, and this one was very quiet but seemingly real. Samir's struggle and the way the people in his life supported him was heartbreakingly kind. The prose really makes me want to describe a lot of what happened as heartbreaking, because emotions were described so well and deeply. Everything kind of washed through my heart in a soft woosh.

Unfortunately I really didn't get the portrayal of the Bonner sisters. I know I was supposed to feel the judgment of the town, these girls who are possibly witches, who sleep around and get pregnant and pretend it's nothing, I'm supposed to feel that the townspeople believe they deserve scorn. And I'm supposed to feel the quiet judgment from the people of Sam and Miel and Aracely too, and with them I feel it from the town while the narrative continues to insist that they are regular people with flaws and secrets who don't deserve the judgment they endure, that despite being kind of magic they're just people. And I felt judgment of the Bonner sisters from the town but I also felt it from the narrative. Like I'm supposed to be complicit in the idea that women who use their sexuality however they want are bad, that a women who can have a baby and leave it with her aunt and uncle doesn't deserve to not be whispered about. And the weirdness of them, that they're kind of magic but in a way that removes their individuality instead of reinforcing it, that men fall at their feet and their own father fears them, that women resent them and are wary of them, that women who are beautiful and sexual and who wield their sexuality in a certain way are not able to interact with regular people in a normal way, that they have to separate themselves - that, to me, reinforced the feeling that the narrative didn't want me to trust them either. We don't see too much into the minds of the sisters until the end, we see them through the eyes of Miel and Sam and the townspeople and so we only see them as femmes fatale, manipulative and emotionless. While the ending may redeem this a bit, I didn't like reading through the whole book with mysterious and cruel female sexuality as the antagonist. It was strange.

Other than that - I would definitely recommend this book for people who love lush prose and magic realism, trans* narratives and cultural diversity. ( )

I know what I'm getting when I open an Anna-Marie McLemore book now: heartache, breathtakingly magical storytelling, and gorgeous prose. I think I'll need Aracely to cure me of literary lovesickness as I wait for "Wild Beauty".

One thing to get out of the way that I have to squee about: the chapter titles are all lunar water features. Perfection.

Sam and Miel. *squinchy hand motions* *clutches chest* *sighs* The thing with beautiful writing and wonderful characters is that they're so damn difficult to describe in regular, non-genius-writer terms. And I absolutely can't say anything beyond the cover copy without ruining the slow-burn enjoyment of this so....

Anyways, this novel is lovely and achy, and if you haven't read McLemore's first, "The Weight of Feathers", buy that and then pre-order this. ( )

If you love magical realism, you will love this book. If you love gentle trans love stories, then you will also love this book. I had difficulties reading it because the story is so soft and dreamy; it felt like a lullaby, a kind of book I wanted to fall asleep into its world. The prose is beautiful, and really suits the mood: atmosphere, in my opinion, was the best part of the story. The plot is meh, but the love stories in it are stunning. There were so many, like the love between family members, and the love between souls, and the love for one's self. I absolutely loved Samir's story, and how he was allowed to be the male romantic lead, no questions asked. McLemore writes a very personal and honest novel, and that is what makes this book shine.

Take your time to read this book and fall into its world, because it really is lovely. ( )

I don't usually like magical realism, but this was GOOD. ( )

What a wonderful little book! I purchased When the Moon Was Ours after reading so many positive reviews from my friends here on Goodreads, but I was not quite sure what I was getting into. This fairy tale is pure magic; a perfect companion for a gloomy Sunday afternoon. I devoured this book is one sitting and will definitely be on the look out for more of McLemore's work. ( )

This book was not for me. It's been a minute since I dipped into magical realism as a genre, and it's still not one that I can do. If you're looking for YA magical realism, go ahead and give this one a go, but if that's not your thing, this isn't going to change your mind. ( )

I was not properly prepared for this book.

Which was probably my fault. I went in only knowing that there was a trans love interest and a girl with roses and that was pretty much it. I’ve seen a fair amount of gushing reviews about how beautiful this book is but I still wasn’t prepared for just how right this book feels.

This is the perfect Autumn book if you’re more into magic than spooky. The story involves a strange cast of characters. Miel, the girl who is afraid of pumpkins and water and grows roses out of her wrist. Samir, a boy who just wants to call his body what he wants. The Bonner sisters, a near sinister group of girls who have their own set of secrets. Aracely, a woman shaped by the river. The setting of this book flits between a violet house, a pumpkin patch full of increasingly glass pumpkins, and the woods that house a stained glass coffin. This book is a sensory experience and more character driven than plot oriented, but McLemore makes it work. No, she more than makes it work- she leaves you desperately wanting more.

While this book pretends to be an almost fairytale, this is really about two best friends falling in love but learning to accept themselves on their own. It takes Sam owning his own body and name to allow him to let Miel in and Miel has to start moving forward from her traumatic childhood in order to stand up for herself against the Bonner sisters. I did love how in the end, it wasn’t Miel protecting Sam as much as it was Sam protecting himself which is very important.

The magic in the story is so effortless. People believe in magic, people use magic, and it’s just something that is there and accepted. I really appreciated how organically it flowed throughout the story.

There was a lot of commentary on how PoC are treated as outsiders, especially through Samir’s mother. The town trusted her with their children but were always quick to make sure she knew that she was an outsider because of where her family came from. McLemore didn’t hold back on this topic, at all. She’s very bold in her assessment that if you are different from the people around you, it’s like walking a tight-rope… one misstep and it’s all over. Parents love Samir because he paints moons that lull that children to sleep but if they knew that he was trans, they would hate him.

Samir. Good LORD, SAMIR. I had never heard of the Pakistani practice of bacha posh and I was sort of weary about how this would play out in the story since it had been lauded as revolutionary trans rep. However, McLemore beautiful touches on this tradition and what it means for Samir… who doesn’t want to go back to being Samira because that’s not who he is. I also loved the relationship he has with his mother and how she is willing to do anything for her son. There was so much GOOD exploration of gender and sexuality and sex, and it was so great to see this characters explore and not be shamed for that exploration.

I’ve seen a lot of reviews state that they didn’t “get this book”. Honestly, if you’re a reader who needs everything to make sense or needs world building, this book probably isn’t for you. There are a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of “just roll with it” in this book. Why does Miel’s family have a history of rose girls? Why are the Bronner’s parents so apathetic? Are we in modern times? No one knows! This is definitely a book for people who are ok with “suspending disbelief” for the duration of the book.

Would I recommend this book? Yes. To everyone. 100x over. ( )

This is a beautifully written coming of age love story. ( )

Beautiful trans coming of age story with heavy magical realism. Strong, interesting characters. Writing was a little repetitive in places. Nothing major, but not just prosaic repetition. Felt like the author moved some revelations to a new chapter and forgot to take it out of the old one. Didn't detract from the story, just made me wonder if I'd missed something the first time. Overall wonderful fairy tale of sorts with a very dreamlike quality to it. ( )

This book is beautiful. It has magnetic characters & lush, transformative prose. Sam, especially, was raw, beautiful, & filled my heart to the brim. Sometimes, though, the plot was too loose. It was difficult to see where the narrative thread was going with the Bonner sisters, their actions, & Miel's responses. Still, this is an electrifying love story about two outsiders finding themselves in each other. ★★★★☆. ( )

This is one of the most beautiful books I have read in a long time. The prose is an effortless magical realism grounded in real world life and stories. The romance is frank and supported by true and complex feeling and community, and parental figures get to be just as flawed, human, and loving as the teens. The trans characters get to be real people, with real lives and concerns of which being trans is integral but not overwhelming--just like real life. This book breaks the mold of YA about trans kids by turning away from the Issue Story and drawing deep on the characters' personalities, cultures, and experiences to center them in a story that highlights their humanity without being an after school special. Sam and Miel will be with me for a long long time. ( )

The winner of the 2016 Winner of the 2016 Tiptree Award!and longlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Young People's LiteratureStonewall Book Award Honor“McLemore’s second novel. This book is a young adult book in that the characters are high school students who are at that point of becoming more and more sexual people. So this story is about a friendship between a Latino girl and a Pakistani boy. Miel has lost her family and she is afraid of pumpkins and roses grow from her wrists. Samir lives with his mother and he hangs moons.

The author's second book and she based it on a Mexican folklore. She has a author's note that provides additional information about why she wrote this book. The Tiptree is awarded to SF or Fantasy work that explores gender issues. This book does that. It also has sexual contact between teens, swearing so parents need to be aware of that when considering this book.

I felt it was more magical realism than it was fantasy. I am concerned that there is allusions to cutting behavior. There definitely is a lot of teenage angst in the book. I really was not that taken with it and did not feel it was all that unique.

My rating for it is 2.86. ( )

Just when I think I've overstayed my welcome in YA and need to take a break for a little while, I read When the Moon Was Ours; one of THE best magical realism books I've read, and I can only imagine how powerful its story is/will be for the young adults who read it, especially if those young folks are queer and/or transgender.

My daughter has trans friends, ranging in age from 13-19, all of whom have experienced varying degrees of hate and intolerance in their everyday lives, and I hope they and other trans kids and teens find this book and that it offers them solace in today's harsh world.

Normally I'm not one for love stories, but oh my, Miel and Sam had me from the get-go, touched even the most cynical recesses of this thirty-something's heart. Because theirs is a story about seeing and being seen, about acceptance of exactly who they each are, regardless of labels, boxes, rules, or expectations. Their beautiful story coupled with the lavish prose and seamless blend of the fantastic with the realistic... Like I said, one of the best magical realism books I've read to date.

"This is the thing I learned from loving a transgender boy who took years to say his own name: that waiting with someone, existing in that quiet, wondering space with them when they need it, is worth all the words we have in us." (Author's Note)

After reading the Acknowlegments and Author's Note it's quite clear that Anna-Marie McLemore has written a deeply personal story with When the Moon Was Ours, and I'm grateful that she was willing to share so much of herself by way of Miel and Sam's fictional world. It's obvious that McLemore and her husband's relationship is quite special and I wish them many more years of love and joy.

4 stars
(and you bet your biscuits I'll be reading Wild Beauty in October 2017) ( )

When the Moon Was Ours is a beautifully written magical realism story about two best friends who fall in love – Sam, a transgender boy, and Miel, a girl who grows roses from her wrists.

Everyone in town knows to be wary of the Bonner sisters, four red headed girls that the town whispers are witches. They can make any man in town fall in love with them, but when they worry that their power is fading they see Miel’s roses as a solution. And they will stop at nothing to get what they want.

So about half way through When the Moon Was Ours, I realized that the romance was the main plot. Unfortunately, I’m not a romance reader. I don’t usually care about romance plots or subplots, and that was the case for When the Moon Was Ours. While I wished I loved this book as much as everyone else seems to, I just don’t think it was the right kind of book for me.

While When the Moon Was Ours has clear magical elements, their ambiguous and unexplained nature pushes them more towards magical realism than fantasy. I also tend not to read magical realism, preferring straight up fantasy.

When the Moon Was Ours was very prettily written but at times felt too flowery for me. It also felt sort of messy structurally, but that could be just because I’m not used to the pacing of romance based works. It felt like it was taking me forever to read even though it’s less than three hundred pages.

By far my favorite thing about When the Moon Was Ours was the diversity. There is a clear lack of trans protagonists in pretty much every medium, and I loved that When the Moon Was Ours helped fill in the gap. The story was clearly personal to the author – in the afterwards she talked about how the book drew on her own life, including her Latina heritage and her marriage to a transman.

I also loved some of the imagery When the Moon Was Ours contained. The field of pumpkins turning to glass, the coffin in the woods, the strange girl arriving out of the spill of a water tower… The descriptions of the Bonner sisters were enchanting as well, and I liked that they were given some complexity as antagonists.

While When the Moon Was Ours turned out not to be my sort of story line or subgenre, I am sure that there’s other people out there who would like it. I would definitely suggest it to people who are greater fans of magical realism or romance and to anyone looking for a trans protagonist.

Review originally posted on The Illustrated Page. ( )

A fabulous Young Adult novel highly recommended for fans of The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro and The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. This dreamy fairytale of a book uses magical realism and many varied cultural traditions and references to tell the story of Miel, who grows roses from her wrist and Samir, who hangs and illuminates cutout moons throughout their village. The creepy Bonner girls are the antagonists in this tale which at it’s heart sends the message that what makes us broken is keeping secrets. We can heal ourselves by owning, living and naming our truths and accepting the truths of others. A perfect read for fall with the opening scene set in the autumn and a running theme of pumpkins in the narrative.

I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks!

"And she told me a story yesterday/About the sweet love between the moon and the deep blue sea"

(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through NetGalley.)

"Someday, he and Miel would be nothing but a fairy tale. When they were gone from this town, no one would remember the exact brown of Miel’s eyes, or the way she spiced recado rojo with cloves, or even that Sam and his mother were Pakistani. At best, they would remember a dark-eyed girl, and a boy whose family had come from somewhere else. They would remember only that Miel and Sam had been called Honey and Moon, a girl and a boy woven into the folklore of this place."

"The closer she got to him, the more she felt it in her roses, like a moon pulling on a sea."

Miel and Samir are the odd ones out in their small town. In a sea of white faces, their brown skin marks them as different (she, Latina; he, Pakistani); and in this tight-knit community, their outsider status is only compounded by the fact that they were not born here.

Sam's story is somewhat mundane, or so he thinks: his mother, Yasmin, arrived in search of work. Miel's origins are a bit more fantastical and mysterious: as a child, she arrived on a wave of rust-brown water, spit out by the abandoned water tower when it was deemed a safety hazard and finally brought down. Angry and hysterical (and no doubt disoriented), Miel kicked and screamed; something about losing the moon. Just a child himself, Sam was the only one brave enough to approach this dangerous, feral girl. He wrapped her in his jacket, soothed her with her voice, and returned the moon to her, one hand-painted, candle-lit orb at a time.

From that point on, they were inseparable, each one half of a whole: Miel and Samir. Honey and Moon. The cursed girl from whose wrist roses grow, and the boy who everyone insists on calling a girl. The girl who's terrified of pumpkins and water, and the boy who helps pumpkins grow.

A decade or so has passed, and Miel and Sam's relationship has only deepened - possibly into something romantic. Just as they're exploring this new form of togetherness, however, Miel finds herself in the crosshairs of the dangerous and alluring Bonner sisters, las gringas bonitas: Chloe, Lian, Ivy, and Peyton; so close they're like a single organism in four red-headed bodies. Rumor has it that the girls are witches, capable of stealing the heart of any man or boy she desires. They keep Miel's adopted mother, Aracely, in work; she is a curandera who deals in lovesickness.

When Ivy fails to seduce a boy - a first - she gets it into her head that Miel's roses will restore the girls' power, and keep their reputation intact. But Miel is unwilling to let the Bonner sisters take this part of herself: "Her body was not a garden." Thus begins a rather horrifying game of cat and mouse, where lies cut much more deeply than a jagged piece of glass (whether from a field of pumpkins turned to glass, or a stained-glass coffin in the woods).

When the Moon Was Ours is a strange and magical story about love and loss, and being true to yourself - even if it means letting some things go. It has the feel of a fairy tale, but is also strongly rooted in contemporary fiction. (Magical realism, then?) McLemore seamlessly blends the more fantastical and real-world elements of the story to create something that's wondrous yet still tangible.

The main and supporting characters are all complex and well-developed. At first I worried that the Bonner sisters would be reduced to archetypal "evil" women, who wield their sexuality like a weapon, but this couldn't be further from the truth. (THAT ENDING!) Sam's mom Yasmin is the sort of mom I want for everyone, and her backstory is pretty amazing. She's a lady who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go out and get it, no matter what others might say about her. Her love for Sam is evident in the patient, compassionate way she lets him decide his own truth, however long it may take. Aracely, the golden-haired woman whose arrival was preceded by thousands of butterflies, is even more awesome. Though I guessed at her origins (albeit only a few pages before the big reveal), it was marvelous and lovely to behold all the same.

But it's Miel and Sam - a thousand times Sam - who really steal the show. Miel's childhood remains a mystery for most of the story and, while the buildup proved a little frustrating at times, it was worth it. She grows from a timid girl to a fierce young woman, willing to go to battle to protect her friends, her family, and her bodily autonomy.

And Sam. I worry about dropping a spoiler here, except the synopsis mentions a trans character. Raised on his grandmother's stories - of princes and fairies; her family's saffron farm in Kashmir; and of the practice of bacha posh, temporarily treating a girl as a boy in a family without any - Sam draws on these tales, in varying degrees, later in life. He calms Miel with stories, particularly of the moons he hangs between their houses, and all over town, to keep children's nightmares at bay. As he pollinates pumpkins at the Bonner's farm, he is reminded of his ancestors' delicate work. And in the stories of bacha posh, carried from Afghanistan to Pakistan, he finds inspiration.

I was first introduced to the bacha posh tradition through Jenny Nordberg's 2014 book, The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan, and have been fascinated with it ever since. Bacha posh blurs the line between male and female, while paradoxically reinforcing rigid gender roles. There are several books, both fiction and non, about bacha posh on my TBR list - Nadia Hashimi's The Pearl That Broke Its Shell; I Am a Bacha Posh by Ukmina Manoori; and Maria Toorpakai's A Different Kind of Daughter immediately come to mind, but I feel like I'm missing a few - yet I have to keep putting them off due to time constraints. So it was pretty shiny to see bacha posh pop up in another book when I least expected it!

Sam is not a bacha posh, not exactly; rather, he uses the practice as a bridge between his "shadow sister," Samira, and the new identity he eventually forges for himself. It's easier to tell his mother - and himself - that he's only "playing" at being a boy, for the family. He hopes that, once he reaches adulthood, he'll want to be a girl. But at seventeen, it just isn't happening.

While most bacha posh do make the rocky transition into womanhood, Nordberg also profiles a few defiant women who refused to relinquish the power that passing as male afforded them. They forfeited marriage and children in favor of freedom. At least one - Shahed - eventually came to identify as male: “a survival strategy that turned into an identity.” In contrast, Sam considered himself a boy well before he started wearing jeans and cutting his hair short. Anyway, it's certainly a unique way of incorporating a little-known practice (in Western cultures, that is; in Afghanistan, Nordberg reports that it's just not spoken of) into a much larger story about identity, family, and love.

McLemore's writing is lyrical and lovely; if you enjoyed her debut novel, The Weight of Feathers, then chances are you'll dig When the Moon Was Ours too. Both books have a weird, otherworldly vibe, and it's hard not to draw parallels between Cluck, the boy who sprouts feathers, and Miel, who grows roses from her wrist.

The descriptions of organic pumpkins and man-made moons - blue and rose, gold and silver; seemingly every color under the rainbow - are rich and vibrant. Miel and Sam's world is so colorful that, by story's end, I'd started to imagine what it might look like as a graphic novel, or an animated film (or even a live action one come alive with a generous touch of CGI). However, the descriptions are so frequent and lengthy that they start to feel a little redundant after a while. Really that's my only complaint.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2016/10/24/when-the-moon-was-ours-by-anna-marie-mclemo... ( )

Fiction M1644w 2016