The Girl Who Drank the Moon

I adore this cover. It was what first caught my eye when people started talking about this book, and then to find out it was a fairytale about a girl, a witch, and a dragon? I was sold. The trouble was getting my hands on it! But it has finally worked its way through the long line of other people who wanted to read it at my library, and I got to check it out. I've labeled it YA Fantasy, but it's actually pretty close to middle-grade Fantasy. Definitely something younger readers could understand, but enough meat in it for older readers who like fairy tales to enjoy it as well.

I would argue that the main character is not, in fact, the titular one, but the forest witch, Xan. Xan has been rescuing the babies left outside the Protectorate for many, many years, thinking the parents were abandoning them willfully, not that they were bullied into “sacrificing” wanted children. She'd cluck, take the babies, and deliver them to towns on the other side of the forest, where the villagers knew and loved her and cherished the children, calling them blessed and Star-Children. Meanwhile, the people of the Protectorate lived their days under a gray haze of misery, ruled by a Council who cared only for themselves and used Xan and the forest as a scare tactic.

Into this world Luna is born, and her mother refuses to give her up to be sacrificed, and goes “mad” when she is forced to. She is imprisoned in a tower, watched by fearsome nuns, while the oblivious Xan spirits her daughter away. On the journey, Xan winds up wandering instead of going straight to a village, and accidentally feeds Luna moonlight instead of starlight. Realizing the girl would be too much for a normal family to raise, she takes her home. (She also can't bear the thought of giving this particular child up.) She raises Luna as a granddaughter.

But Luna's mother wants her back, and some of the people of the Protectorate have started to wise up to the Council's games, and the plot really begins.

I really enjoyed this book - the characters were fun, the emotional conflicts were realistic, and the world-building was cute. This would actually be an excellent book to read to a child as a bedtime story, one chapter a night. (My parents read to us that way, working through Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien, and Anne of Green Gables.) Adorable book, gorgeous cover. Slightly simplistic, but it strikes a perfect balance between a middle-grade read and something adults will still enjoy.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

I see why so many people love this book, but that doesn't mean I have to love it, too. Don't get me wrong...I liked it. I liked the chapters where the mom tells stories to her child. I liked the idea of saving the children set out for sacrifice. I liked the plot as it weaves around and comes together at the end. I just didn't love it. It felt a little too rushed at times (a classic trilogy structure might have given the story more room) and it felt a little too pat (I was quite sure the sacrificed children would not be killed). I think I wanted just a bit more venturing off the path.

fun fact: when I checked this out I had it confused with [b:When the Moon Was Ours 28220826 When the Moon Was Ours Anna-Marie McLemore https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1454598349s/28220826.jpg 48249481] and I spent like, the first half of it being pretty confused about how different it was from all the reviews I read of it...IDK, this was very good and beautiful too but honestly I was so thrown by thinking it was a different book! Which is obviously nobody's fault but my own but seriously cramped my reading of it tbh.So that's my professional advice, if you are going to read this book make sure you know which book it is.

Summary: The Protectorate is run by some powerful, manipulative people who have convinced the citizens of the town that, every year, they must give one of the town’s babies to a witch in order to keep her from harming them all. Little do they know that the witch really exists, but, contrary to what the elders say, she is a kind old woman who, one year, feeds the sacrificed baby moonlight, causing her to gain magical powers. As the witch raises the child herself, evil forces stir in the Protectorate, and one special citizen decides that he doesn’t like the way things are in the city. This novel is a fantastic story of familial love, enchanting magic, and good rising up against evil.