Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - An Arrow to the Moon

A lyrical retelling of Romeo and Juliet with Chinese mythology infused throughout. The short chapters make this book easy to read, pulling you into this mythical place. Despite there being quite a few narrators, I didn't feel like anyone character got less development than others, and the multiple narrators were important for understanding the story.

However, some of the jumping around did make it difficult to follow what was actually happening, plot wise. I think this was just part of the mythological aspect of the story, but there were times where I felt confused.

Loved learning more about Chinese mythology, though! And the central relationship was sweet and well developed. All in all, an enjoyable book.

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madisone's review

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adventurous hopeful informative lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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nytephoenyx's review

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sad slow-paced

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

1.75

An Arrow to the Moon is a modern retelling of the story of the archer who shot down nine suns and his wife, the moon goddess.Over the last couple months, I’ve become very familiar with multiple versions of Hou Yi and Chang’e’s story between this book, Daughter of the Moon Goddess, and researching the Mid-Autumn Festival for work. It’s appropriate, I suppose, because the Moon Festival is in about two weeks, so this is a timely book to be reading.

I wish I liked it more. I really, really wanted to enjoy this book, even before I knew what it was about, because I loved The Astonishing Color of After and Emily X.R. Pan is excellent at weaving the fantastic and unremarkable together into something breathtaking. An Arrow to the Moon had its moments, scenes where Luna’s firefly nests and peach trees and wind bringing money to Hunter sparked that magic. But for the most part, I struggled with this book.

From a technical perspective, there are far too many chapters and they are all too short. If it had just been Hunter and Luna’s POVs, I think it would have been alright. Instead, we had Hunter, Luna, Hunter dad, Hunter’s mom, Hunter’s brother Cody, Luna’s Dad, Luna’s Mom, and Rodney Wong (our mortal villain). That is eight POVs. It was way too much and made the book feel scattered. Many of the chapters were only a page and a half long. I know why Emily X.R. Pan did this, but I think in doing it, the focus on the main plot often got lost.

The main plot of this book is the retelling and Hunter/Luna’s story, but the two subplots easily took over the story. One – the debt owed by Hunter’s parents, pursue by Rodney Wong – felt like the primary plot most the time. Luna’s parents had their own subplot as well. It came on hard in the second half of the book and was mostly just annoying. I forgive Cody’s POV a little because he was telling a second story related to the Mid-Autumn Festival (the story of the Jade Rabbit, though less gruesome here than the original version). Because there were so many distractions, the ending of the book came on like a baseball bat to the side of my head. It wasn’t the good kind of surprise – it was the “what the heck just happened?!” kind of surprise.

If I hadn’t known the myth behind An Arrow to the Moon, the ending would have seemed so illogical and out of the blue. Since I do know the myth, it was somewhat expected but still came on too quickly and dramatically.

Between the scattered nature of the book and the way the ending just exploded after very slow pacing for the entire story… I find myself conflicted between supporting the author and being super disappointed. Emily X.R. Pan’s magical realism is fantastic… but this book felt like a mess to me. I guess I’d say proceed with caution. Prepare for a lot of viewpoints, some plot imbalance, and a really quick ending. Try to enjoy the ride.

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tahsintries's review

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4.0

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wenwanzhao's review

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emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

The mythological aspects just didn’t hit for me. I didn’t feel particularly enthralled or drawn into the story. I kept reading mostly out of curiosity, and it felt like a lot of threads ended either in disappointment or nothing at all.

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bookwormbullet's review

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emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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victoriousbookworm's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

I loved this book! Pan perfectly intertwined Romeo and Juliet with Chinese mythology and had me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out the mystical elements of this book! It was so enjoyable to see Hunter and Lina’s relationship revolve and change throughout their story and the ending left me speechless and in awe.

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whatjasread's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An Arrow to the Moon had a rough start for me. I went into it with very different expectations, thinking it would be high fantasy rather than a simpler magical realism novel. YA novels that focus so much on the MCs going to school don't tend to work so well for me, it's just not what I enjoy reading. However, with the subtle elements of magic and the forbidden friendship-turned-romance element added to it, AATTM was a genuinely great read. Writing wise, the first third was a bit of a struggle for me -- if the whole book had been like the final third, I think this could have been five stars.

One of my favourite things about this book is that it doesn't shy away from important, difficult topics. They're not presented in an overwhelming or overbearing way, either. There's an argument to be made that it does fall too easily into the stereotype of the strict East Asian parent who is only ever focused on academic achievement and pushing their child to the limit. While it does, the book also pays important attention to political issues such as the Taiwan China conflict (which I'm genuinely intrigued about and will probably go and research more!) It also doesn't shy away from open discussion of periods - blood, cramps and everything in between. It seems like such a minor thing, but it's so important, especially in YA.

The ending was just phenomenal, I think if similar snippets had been woven throughout more than just in the journal, it would have been amazing and added a bit more to the story. I adore all the relationships in this book, particularly between Hunter and his younger brother Cody! There were some storylines which I didn't much care about (Rodney, mostly), but otherwise this book surprised me in a good way!

TWs: asthma attacks, racism, sexism, overbearing parents, strained family relationships, cheating, financial difficulty, child abuse, depression

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