sarah837's review
dark
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, and Drug use
keepcalmblogon's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Thank you Hot Redhead Media for the e-ARC!
How do I begin to explain Moth? Imagine Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis as a film noir in which the femme fatal is the protagonist and a gay man. The first thing that struck me was the third person omniscient narrator that jumped not only from viewpoint to viewpoint, but did it within the same paragraph! At first, it was hard to keep up with whose viewpoint I was reading, but after getting into the groove of Takeda’s writing, I was surprised by his ability to switch from character to character so smoothly. I found myself quite enjoying this type of narration, as I was let in on everything going on in a scene without too much wordy exposition.
The bit I didn’t like about the writing were the very frequent references to artists, poets, writers, and thinkers scattered throughout the story. This felt like a cheap way to lend a tone to certain scenes without actually fleshing them out. It also felt a little pretentious.
This is one of few books of which I have ever spent time on contemplating the value of the story. As a rule, I believe all stories have value, but as a person who exists in the world with my own individual life experience, I have found myself questioning the value of a story a, very, few times. Being brief, my life has been directly affected by addiction and furthermore, by heroin addiction. So I found myself wondering why on earth I had agreed to a read story in which heroin addiction features front and center? The answer to my own question was, of course, that all stories have value. But I was able to expound on my question by asking: would we read stories about addicts if they weren’t well-educated addicts? Because all of the heroin addicts in this story have, or are getting, a college education and seem to be very familiar with literature and philosophy.
Moving on from questioning the story, let’s get down to the plot! Although not directly a vampire story, I will say Moth made me rethink one particular aspect of vampirism. Previously, my notions of vampirism were glamourized with vampires possessing power and freedom. But Moth showed me that a vampire can be a slave to their condition, more so than any bloodlust I have ever seen; Moth’s transformation renders him completely without choice in his actions against mortals.
The mention of mortals brings me to a comparison between traditional vamps and Moth’s creatures. It’s unclear whether the creatures in Moth are immortal, but it is stated early on that they are not invulnerable. They clearly have powers of influence, both mentally and physically applied. Moth’s creatures are also quite beautiful to humans, although this glamour seems to become stripped away by others of their kind. I believe Moth’s creatures go through more of a physical change than traditional vampires and their chompers, but I won’t go into too many of the physical changes Moth’s creatures experience. What is perfectly abundant is that Moth’s creatures do not consume blood nor are they limited by the sun.
All in all, I think I will give Moth 3 stars, because there were aspects of the storytelling that either lacked flesh or proper descriptions and I questioned the value of this story, which indicates my suspension of disbelief was not so suspended. In the end, I’ll stick with traditional vampires, but these beings were a very unique creation by Takeda.
How do I begin to explain Moth? Imagine Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis as a film noir in which the femme fatal is the protagonist and a gay man. The first thing that struck me was the third person omniscient narrator that jumped not only from viewpoint to viewpoint, but did it within the same paragraph! At first, it was hard to keep up with whose viewpoint I was reading, but after getting into the groove of Takeda’s writing, I was surprised by his ability to switch from character to character so smoothly. I found myself quite enjoying this type of narration, as I was let in on everything going on in a scene without too much wordy exposition.
The bit I didn’t like about the writing were the very frequent references to artists, poets, writers, and thinkers scattered throughout the story. This felt like a cheap way to lend a tone to certain scenes without actually fleshing them out. It also felt a little pretentious.
This is one of few books of which I have ever spent time on contemplating the value of the story. As a rule, I believe all stories have value, but as a person who exists in the world with my own individual life experience, I have found myself questioning the value of a story a, very, few times. Being brief, my life has been directly affected by addiction and furthermore, by heroin addiction. So I found myself wondering why on earth I had agreed to a read story in which heroin addiction features front and center? The answer to my own question was, of course, that all stories have value. But I was able to expound on my question by asking: would we read stories about addicts if they weren’t well-educated addicts? Because all of the heroin addicts in this story have, or are getting, a college education and seem to be very familiar with literature and philosophy.
Moving on from questioning the story, let’s get down to the plot! Although not directly a vampire story, I will say Moth made me rethink one particular aspect of vampirism. Previously, my notions of vampirism were glamourized with vampires possessing power and freedom. But Moth showed me that a vampire can be a slave to their condition, more so than any bloodlust I have ever seen; Moth’s transformation renders him completely without choice in his actions against mortals.
The mention of mortals brings me to a comparison between traditional vamps and Moth’s creatures. It’s unclear whether the creatures in Moth are immortal, but it is stated early on that they are not invulnerable. They clearly have powers of influence, both mentally and physically applied. Moth’s creatures are also quite beautiful to humans, although this glamour seems to become stripped away by others of their kind. I believe Moth’s creatures go through more of a physical change than traditional vampires and their chompers, but I won’t go into too many of the physical changes Moth’s creatures experience. What is perfectly abundant is that Moth’s creatures do not consume blood nor are they limited by the sun.
All in all, I think I will give Moth 3 stars, because there were aspects of the storytelling that either lacked flesh or proper descriptions and I questioned the value of this story, which indicates my suspension of disbelief was not so suspended. In the end, I’ll stick with traditional vampires, but these beings were a very unique creation by Takeda.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, and Homophobia
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