The Girl Who Chased the MoonBy Sarah Addison Allen
Copyright 2009
Bantam Books - Fiction
269 pages
Book Description:
Bugger. Can I skip this part? Or, maybe I'll just pull a Raych and write it in plain speak. Yes, that sounds good. I promise in advance that this will not become a regular practice. Okay, there's this teenager, Emily, whose mother has died and she has no father so she has to move in with her grandfather . . . who is a giant. She settles into his mansion in Mullaby, North Carolina and feels a little out of place, plus there are these weird lights in the forest and her wallpaper changes based on her mood.
So, Emily is trying to fit in, figure out the strange happenings and get her grandfather to hang out with her a little whilst some dude in a bow tie drops odd hints about the reason people hate her for her dead mom's sake and then she meets Julia. Julia bakes cakes and sells them at her dad's barbecue place because she's not particularly interested in the whole barbecue restaurant thing. She's from Mullaby, but she managed to get away from the town when something frightful happened and she really wants to get the heck out of Dodge. But, she has to pay off the mortgage and sell out. Dead dad was in debt, so that'll take a while.
There are all sorts of small-town secrets and weird, maybe-magical things happening. This really good-looking guy is crazy about Julia but she's all, "Leave me alone because our secret is the sucky kind that forces me to shove you away." And, Emily has the bow-tie wearing dude whose entire family doesn't come out after dark interested in her. So, what's up in Mullaby, North Carolina? What on earth did Emily's mother do to piss off an entire town? And, what does the moon have to do with anything?
My review:
This will be a short one. Honestly? I love everything Sarah Addison Allen has written (you'll hear my thoughts about The Peach Keeper in a few days). I love the little touches of magic, the deep, dark secrets, the way she slowly reveals what happened to people that made them all screwed-up and sensitive but then somehow unknots their twisted pasts and ends each story on an upbeat, happy note.
I'm not going to answer the questions, of course. That's what you have to discover for yourself. I will tell you, though, that I found The Girl Who Chased the Moon very satisfying. If you love a small-town Southern story with a little romance, a touch of magic and quirky characters that are so well-developed you can't help but wonder what they're up to, days after you close the book, you'll love The Girl Who Chased the Moon.
I checked this one out from my local library. After finishing The Peach Keeper, I thought, "I really, really, really want to read the book I missed," (I've read all of SAA's books, now) and I'm glad I did, even though I probably ought to quit inserting books from the library and the non-ARC shelf into my TBR pile. Because, geez, that shelf is just not getting any sizable holes from frequent removal of books. I'm starting to feel pissy about my lack of discipline, to be honest.
Enough personal revelation for one day. I shall do my utter best to return to quality book reviews, tomorrow.
©2011 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.
