When the Moon Was Ours Author: Anna-Marie McLemore
Pages: 288 (Hardcover)
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Release Date: October 4, 2016
Source: For Review
Purchase: Amazon•TBD (affiliate link)
When the Moon Was Ours follows two characters through a story that has multicultural elements and magical realism, but also has central LGBT themes—a transgender boy, the best friend he’s falling in love with, and both of them deciding how they want to define themselves.
To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town.
But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.
I was very excited, but also hesitant, about reading When the Moon Was Ours. Excited because, well, read that description! It sounds amazing! The hesitation comes from the fact that Magical Realism isn’t my genre. I did enjoy the author’s debut, but sadly this one didn’t quite work out for me. Miel and Sam have been friends since they were little. Both of them are seen as a bit strange by their small town, but they’re accepted for the most part. Except for by the Bonner sisters, who get everything and everyone that they want, and now they want something from Miel that she refuses to give.
When the Moon Was Ours was boring to me. I never fully got into the story. Part of it was because I guess I just didn’t “get” it. Miel has roses growing out of her wrists, which she cuts off. It’s something that ran in her family but hadn’t been seen in a few generations. Why? I have no idea? What does it mean? No clue. It’s just there. I’m sure this is suppose to be part of the wonder of Magical Realism, but I can’t accept it without an explanation! Especially because that’s what the Bonner sisters want, Miel’s roses. Why?! I know they think they have some magical power, but there’s no indication in the story that that’s even so. It was just weird.
What I did love about When the Moon Was Ours was how Sam’s gender was handled. Sam is transgender, but is living life by a Pakistani tradition. He’s a daughter living as a boy, because his mother has no sons. At least this is what he said when he was younger and it was an easier explanation. But Sam is in fact a son, not a daughter. Miel knows this and accepts him whole-heartedly. There’s also sex on the page, which I hadn’t encountered before. In other books I’ve read, the author’s completing skip over the transperson in the sexual situation like they only give rather than receive, or like it’s taboo to mention their body parts or something. Miel and Sam have sex and we know what they’re doing. It’s not graphic or anything. It’s just there with no misunderstandings.
When the Moon Was Ours will thrill and engage a lot of readers. It just didn’t work for me. I loved the diversity in it, but the actual story left me bored and confused. I just didn’t care about the Bonner sisters wanting Miel’s roses and how they’re basically like The Plastics and Miel is their Kady who shows them the error of their ways. I must face the fact that Magical Realism simply isn’t a genre that I enjoy too much.
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