Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Around my birthday a couple months ago, I went to a used bookstore and picked up a few gems, including this one, which seemed perfect to read around Halloween.

The Girl Who Drank the Moonby Kelly Barnhill is a middle grade fantasy novel about a town that sacrifices a baby each year to the witch in the woods under the belief that she would curse them elsewise. The witch doesn't know why the town is abandoning their babies, but she tries to save them and give them each a loved home. Until one day, she accidentally enmagiks a baby by feeding her moonlight and decides to raise her as her own. Over the novel there are secrets that lead to the discovery of why the town must sacrifice babies and how the story began. The novel actually won a Newberry award!

The author, Kelly Barnhill, is a teacher turned author who loves promoting the arts for children.

I really enjoyed this story for a middle grade novel. There were a few themes that really struck out to me: the danger of sorrow vs hope, the fragility of memory, as well as some motifs of paper and birds and magic.

The worldbuilding of the novel is great, showing a vast landscape for readers to escape into, complete with its own laws and myths and origin stories.

The writing style was a little confusing and a lot whimsical. Half the time I wasn't quite sure what was going on but I enjoyed the ride, reminding me kind of like the show I just watched called Over the Garden Wall.

I loved the characters as well, each one combatting their own fears and sorrows. My favorite character was the Simply Enormous dragon Fyrian who was always childlike and naive, but had blocked out his own trauma which perhaps kept him this way.

Perhaps the main idea of the book is the hope and sacrifices we make for whom we love can combat sorrow. The witch and the girl formed a tightly-bound relationship like a mother and daughter and held hope for each other. The swamp monster and the dragon seemed to also care about each other. The boy from the town found his own love and hope, ready to change the world, as did the madwoman.

I would highly recommend this book to middle grade readers who like whimsical quirky things with deep messages and meanings or who like to make their own inferences in stories.

Overall, this was a four star read for me!

Content Warnings

saara_ilona_muu's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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antimony's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

this book kind of made me feel like kelly barnhill almost sort of does for fairy tales what becky chambers does for sci-fi, which isn't quite a good comparision because barnhill's books often have higher stakes, more plot, etc, but both over overflowing with such kindness, such hope, such belief in the good of people that i think it makes sense. this really felt like a fairy tale given intricacy, like if people passing tales down had the time and memory to add tiny details and character arcs into their tales (and maybe they did but those elements have been lost to time....) and it was really quite good

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marissasa's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This magical middle grade story was such a whimsical read. I listened to the audiobook on and off while driving and thought it was really well done, the narrator doing different voices for each of the characters really reminded me of listening to my mom do the same thing when she read stories for me as a child. Something I really appreciated about the story was that it didn't shy away from dark themes and that it treated its young audience as mature enough to understand the stakes and complex emotions of the main characters. Although some of the plot points were predictable, the final outcome still felt earned and I enjoyed all the forms of growth and character development we got to see over the years of their lives. The whole time I listened to this book I was thinking that it would make for an excellent animated show or movie and I really hope it gets adapted some day!

Content Warnings

bookishfoxes's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The last few months I have been struggling with reading, it kept giving me headaches or pain in my eyes. Most books I started I was unable to finish because I just couldn't read and eventually lost interest or hope. I managed to read a graphic novel and 2 very short books the last few months, but that was about it. Then this book came (along with a new pair of glasses to try) and I ~finally~ was able to finish it!

This book was an easy and quick read - if I had my pre-2022 reading abilities, I would've devoured this book in 2 or less days. The chapters were a perfect mix of medium or short, the occasional longer chapter didn't feel too long. It was easy to follow the switches between POVs, even if there was still some mystery around some characters.

The plot was interesting. When I read the summary, I knew I wanted to read this book. It did not disappoint.

However, at some point not getting answers to the dozen questions I had got a bit annoying. The whole time you're aware you don't know the full story, and I know that's on purpose because the characters suffer from magical amnesia, but it gets frustrating. Even by the end it still feels like there are questions unanswered.

Speaking of the end, it felt kind of rushed to me. The whole book is slow to medium paced, and then the last few pages are suddenly very fast. It didn't really give the ending the story deserved. It was over too fast.

I would still recommend this book. While it didn't become an all time favorite like I had expected, I still had fun reading it. I'll still cherish this book, think back to it with a smile.

My rating: 3.75☆

Content Warnings

my_weird_bookish_heart's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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faeriefox's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Would round down to 4⭐

This is a reread and was one of my favorite books in elementary school, and now I remember why.

The book is beautifully written, and the prose flows beautifully. It made me feel so many emotions, and the story is very unique and interesting. It's no wonder it won so many awards.

I loved Antain and Glurk's characters especially, and without those specific personalities, the book would have lost so much.

I didn't find most of the other characters to be well-developed, though, which was especially disappointing in Luna's case, since she is the main character. I felt like she was written as too old for her years, and like she didn't have much personality.

Aside from that though, everything was amazing. I especially loved the background on how the world came to be; most books just exist, and I like that this world is similar to our own in that the people within it have stories for how it came to be. It makes it more relatable.

All in all, this was an excellent book, and I'm glad I read it again.

Content Warnings

val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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