A review by jayisreading
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

emotional hopeful medium-paced

2.75

Admittedly, I wasn’t really in the mood to read this book and, thus, it didn’t have my full attention. However, I think there were a few other reasons why I wasn’t as invested in the book as I could have been. The plot sounded promising, suggesting that there would be lunar magic, witches, tiny dragons, and the likes. Barnhill did give all of this, yes, but she also delivered a not insignificant amount of instances of depressed adults having crises, which... I definitely did not sign up for. The writing style felt appropriate for middle grade readers—and Barnhill writes so lyrically—but the content... not so much. Beautiful writing can only do so much, too, because maybe a quarter into the book, it dawned on me that this book might end up being a slog. And I hated that I was right. It didn’t help that there were a lot of redundant lines and situations (which, if these were all cut out, would have made the whole book tighter and better, perhaps). I want to say what got me through this book was Glerk and Fyrian, who were by far the most memorable characters. As charming as they were, though, this wasn’t enough to win me over.
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