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A review by agentmozell
Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
I actually picked this book last year from my TBR jar, but I was in the height of my audiobooks, so much so that when I realized I had been carrying this around for a month without opening it I deleted it from my “currently reading”. Since I’ve finally relaxed with my audiobook addiction and I had finished my book club book and a book I just wanted to get over with because I knew it would be bad, I finally decided to try again.
With that said I’m not sure if my last two books were just that meh or bad to me that this one shone or if I just really really liked this a lot.
I was super scared I wouldn’t like it because the beginning was giving “meh” vibes and Catrin is so unbelievably stupid at times. Like when she realized who she was I had to put it down because I got so mad at her. It was about 50% through and I thought she had already pieced it together like way back in chapter five or something. It would’ve been one think if this book was third person, but this was first person so she was telling the story and explaining the Sun and Moon religions so her extremely delayed realization made no sense to me because she said it a few times, maybe not as blunt, but she said it.
At that point I considered stopping but continued on and I thought I knew who the killer was, then they said it was someone else and I was confused but went with it. When they tried blaming another later I knew that wasn’t it because it was too obvious and it went back to my original guess. Even though I was right I felt a lot of validation with it. But again, Catrin girl, the motives were so obvious why did he have to tell you?
Catrin didn’t even feel relatable, just dumb. Which fits for the setting, her being an orphan with limited education, and her age but come on.
Then the book was very exciting and I almost started crying from the bittersweet ending. Now I’m excited to eventually pick up book two and read it.
This book got a lot of feelings for me and to talk about the setting I did like it and I felt like the world building was flushed out and it was naturally done. I liked the relationship between all the characters, even if I didn’t understand why all the boys liked her.
The writing was well done and I didn’t feel like this was too young for me like most YA. It really felt like a good middle ground of YA and adult without the spice.
My only critic on the writing was that the chapters could’ve been combined. The chapters were very short, like 2-4 pages max and I think there were many that could’ve been combined to be one. I’m not saying the author needs dramatically long chapters, just not as many mini ones that cut off awkwardly.
With that said I’m not sure if my last two books were just that meh or bad to me that this one shone or if I just really really liked this a lot.
I was super scared I wouldn’t like it because the beginning was giving “meh” vibes and Catrin is so unbelievably stupid at times. Like when she realized who she was I had to put it down because I got so mad at her. It was about 50% through and I thought she had already pieced it together like way back in chapter five or something. It would’ve been one think if this book was third person, but this was first person so she was telling the story and explaining the Sun and Moon religions so her extremely delayed realization made no sense to me because she said it a few times, maybe not as blunt, but she said it.
At that point I considered stopping but continued on and I thought I knew who the killer was, then they said it was someone else and I was confused but went with it. When they tried blaming another later I knew that wasn’t it because it was too obvious and it went back to my original guess. Even though I was right I felt a lot of validation with it. But again, Catrin girl, the motives were so obvious why did he have to tell you?
Catrin didn’t even feel relatable, just dumb. Which fits for the setting, her being an orphan with limited education, and her age but come on.
Then the book was very exciting and I almost started crying from the bittersweet ending. Now I’m excited to eventually pick up book two and read it.
This book got a lot of feelings for me and to talk about the setting I did like it and I felt like the world building was flushed out and it was naturally done. I liked the relationship between all the characters, even if I didn’t understand why all the boys liked her.
The writing was well done and I didn’t feel like this was too young for me like most YA. It really felt like a good middle ground of YA and adult without the spice.
My only critic on the writing was that the chapters could’ve been combined. The chapters were very short, like 2-4 pages max and I think there were many that could’ve been combined to be one. I’m not saying the author needs dramatically long chapters, just not as many mini ones that cut off awkwardly.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Sexual violence