Book Review: When the Moon was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

Publisher’s description

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.

Atmospheric, dynamic, and packed with gorgeous prose, When the Moon was Ours is another winner from this talented author.

Amanda’s thoughts

I don’t care if I somehow managed to read like 200 more YA books before the year is out. There is nothing that could possibly bump this book from my top ten. It is gorgeous. Stunning. Phenomenal. I’m a fast reader, as I’m sure many of you are. I know a book really has a hold on me if I force myself to slow down. If I stop reading down the middle of the page and scan every line to make sure I’m catching every beautiful word. If I make myself not bolt it down all in one sitting, but walk away to help drag out the experience, to give myself time to absorb the writing and the story, focusing on more than just burning through the book and getting it out of my TBR pile.

There’s actually almost nothing I want to tell you about this book other than the fact that it’s beautiful and powerful and unique. I want you to go discover every lovely detail for yourself. At the same time, I want to tell you EVERYTHING about this book because it’s just so great.

I’ll shoot for somewhere in the middle of that.

Pakistani Sam (or Samir) and Latinx Miel have been inseparable since Miel came pouring out of the collapsed water tower. Miel is taken in by Aracely, Sam’s neighbor. Now teenagers, Sam and Miel realize how they really feel about each other and what follows are many absolutely breathtakingly beautiful scenes of them kissing, and touching, and discovering each other. Discovery comes into play, too, with the four beguiling redheaded Bonner sisters, known locally as brujas and boyfriend-stealers. They’re convinced that getting some of the roses that grown from Miel’s wrist will help them regain their power over love. They threaten Miel, telling her if she doesn’t comply, they will spill the secrets about her mother. But it’s a second threat that holds even more power over Miel: if she doesn’t comply, they will show everyone Sam’s birth certificate, which shows that he was assigned the label of “girl” at birth. Miel would do anything to protect Sam, especially because she knows he needs the time right now to really be figuring out some big things. You see, Sam has always used the idea of bacha posh to explain himself. We learn that this practice exists in Pakistan and is something Sam learned about from his grandma when he was young. Bacha posh is a practice where girls dress as boys and live that way, to help out their family, be the man of the house, live with more freedoms, etc, eventually going back to dressing and living as girls when they get older. Sam grapples with this, wondering if that’s the most accurate way to think of himself—is there any possible world where he could imagine wanting to go back to who he was mistaken for in his youth? Other characters seem to know where Sam will eventually land on this, but he has to get there on his own.

This story is so much about secrets, untold truths, love, identity, family, culture, and the power of our bodies. This is also another title where I get excited because we are seeing something so new here. This story hasn’t been told. These characters are unique. The plot took completely unexpected twists. Give to this fans of magical realism, those who liked Sarah McCarry’s Metamorphoses Trilogy or Laura Ruby’s Bone Gap, and anyone who appreciates staggeringly beautiful writing. Go read. Then find me on Twitter (@CiteSomething) and we can talk about the many wonderful details that you need to go experience for yourself.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher

ISBN-13: 9781250058669

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Publication date: 10/04/2016

Filed under: Book Reviews