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pointeshoebookworm's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I genuinely don't know how I feel about this book. There were some really great aspects to it, but there were times where I just sat bakc and asked myself what was going on and why it was happening (in terms of how it was moving the plot forward). A part of me feels like the book had too many moving parts at the same time but overall it was still a fairly easy read and I'd be open to reading more from this author.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Grief, Sexual content, and Death of parent
Minor: Stalking, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
cschaepe84's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-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
5.0
Wow. For a while, I did not expect to really like this book as much as I did. This is my second book with this author, the first being The Anatomical Shape of a Heart, and throughout half the story, it was hard for me not to do a lot of comparing between the two, and I almost thought I'd have the same issues with Moonlight, as I did with that book.
Let me explain.
Jenn Bennet is a great writer, and I appreciate her knowledge and use of medical issues and weaving that into the story. Makes me wonder if perhaps Jenn Bennet has some medical experience in a past life or something.
Anyway, we start with a story about a boy and a girl who meet as strangers under mysterious circumstances in a diner about a month ago (Whereas the former book starts with strangers meeting on a midnight bus--Bennett seems to have a fetish for these strange meetings thus far). They hit it off great, and end up having sex in the back seat of the boy's car (whereas in the last book, the girl had a lot of sex in the car with her ex).
And this is where the similarities end. You see, the girl, Birdie, lost her virginity to the boy, Daniel, and halfway through making love, Birdie freaks out and runs away. When we get to the opening scene of the book, Birdie is dreading seeing the boy again as she eats dinner at Moonlight Diner, the very place they've met.
But then, as fate would have it, they end up in the same job together at a hotel, working night shift. It's awkward for Birdie, and a happy reunion for Daniel, but Birdie wants nothing to do with him, not wanting to think about their strange meeting, where the main appeal was that she didn't know him, and he didn't know of her either.
While it's a curse to Birdie, it's fate to Daniel, and he doesn't give up on her quickly. I was somewhat put-off that he was overly pushy with her, kind of the way Jack was with Bex in the former book, and felt like the two couples were one and the same. Nevertheless, they have a chance run-in at Pike Market, and Daniel, finding out that Birdie loves mysteries, pulls her into a real life mystery occurring in the hotel. Little does she know, that Daniel is a mystery of his own.
Some thoughts:
For a while, I didn't feel like Birdie and Daniel had much chemistry together, and everything felt so forced, and they were both giving me (and each other) mixed signals. The mystery itself, uncovering the identity of the mystery thiller author Raymond Darke and his bizarre meetings that only take place for an hour at the hotel they work at, got a little dull at times and at times I just stopped caring.
The plot also shifts around about the characters medical issues. It goes into Daniel's struggle with his mental health and his attempt at suicide after losing half his hearing. It goes into Birdie's sleeping problems and possible narcolepsy (which feels like a hallmark of Bennet, including medical issues--albeit well, but I felt like it added nothing to the story). It also goes into Daniel's love of performing magic tricks and Birdie's love of mystery that she inherited from her mom who tragically passed away when she was only ten and left to be raised by her grandparents and her eccentric aunt Mona. It felt like there was a lot going on, and wasn't adding up. For a while. I did think it was very clever on how Daniel was playing a game of "Truth or Lie" with Birdie as a way to get to know Birdie and assess her detective skills. Many times books have a Q&A with their characters as a lazy way for the characters to get to know each other, but in Moonlight, this game fit very well.
And so did all the other pieces of the puzzle. As Daniel liked to say, "Misdirection".
This was a very slow burn for me, but as we got the climax, it became very exciting, and all the pieces that seemed unrelated at first, came together in a very clever tapestry and surprised me in a way that I did not see coming, something that does not happen very often for me with these books. There was one final surprise for store in me for Daniel, that completely shocked me. Birdie's medical condition ends up complicating things, and made her more aware of some very inconvenient truths that she did not know how to face before. This showed so much character growth for her, and really gave the extra characters a chance to really shine, something that Shape of a Heart did not have.
The final act was so sweet, and wrapped everything up in a nice little package. Even during the slow parts, I could really tell Bennet's writing had improved a lot (except she still does not know how to write a sex scene--even for YA novel). Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the clever plot, the complex characters, and the sweet themes and messages that were all woven together in this cozy mystery.
Let me explain.
Jenn Bennet is a great writer, and I appreciate her knowledge and use of medical issues and weaving that into the story. Makes me wonder if perhaps Jenn Bennet has some medical experience in a past life or something.
Anyway, we start with a story about a boy and a girl who meet as strangers under mysterious circumstances in a diner about a month ago (Whereas the former book starts with strangers meeting on a midnight bus--Bennett seems to have a fetish for these strange meetings thus far). They hit it off great, and end up having sex in the back seat of the boy's car (whereas in the last book, the girl had a lot of sex in the car with her ex).
And this is where the similarities end. You see, the girl, Birdie, lost her virginity to the boy, Daniel, and halfway through making love, Birdie freaks out and runs away. When we get to the opening scene of the book, Birdie is dreading seeing the boy again as she eats dinner at Moonlight Diner, the very place they've met.
But then, as fate would have it, they end up in the same job together at a hotel, working night shift. It's awkward for Birdie, and a happy reunion for Daniel, but Birdie wants nothing to do with him, not wanting to think about their strange meeting, where the main appeal was that she didn't know him, and he didn't know of her either.
While it's a curse to Birdie, it's fate to Daniel, and he doesn't give up on her quickly. I was somewhat put-off that he was overly pushy with her, kind of the way Jack was with Bex in the former book, and felt like the two couples were one and the same. Nevertheless, they have a chance run-in at Pike Market, and Daniel, finding out that Birdie loves mysteries, pulls her into a real life mystery occurring in the hotel. Little does she know, that Daniel is a mystery of his own.
Some thoughts:
For a while, I didn't feel like Birdie and Daniel had much chemistry together, and everything felt so forced, and they were both giving me (and each other) mixed signals. The mystery itself, uncovering the identity of the mystery thiller author Raymond Darke and his bizarre meetings that only take place for an hour at the hotel they work at, got a little dull at times and at times I just stopped caring.
The plot also shifts around about the characters medical issues. It goes into Daniel's struggle with his mental health and his attempt at suicide after losing half his hearing. It goes into Birdie's sleeping problems and possible narcolepsy (which feels like a hallmark of Bennet, including medical issues--albeit well, but I felt like it added nothing to the story). It also goes into Daniel's love of performing magic tricks and Birdie's love of mystery that she inherited from her mom who tragically passed away when she was only ten and left to be raised by her grandparents and her eccentric aunt Mona. It felt like there was a lot going on, and wasn't adding up. For a while. I did think it was very clever on how Daniel was playing a game of "Truth or Lie" with Birdie as a way to get to know Birdie and assess her detective skills. Many times books have a Q&A with their characters as a lazy way for the characters to get to know each other, but in Moonlight, this game fit very well.
And so did all the other pieces of the puzzle. As Daniel liked to say, "Misdirection".
This was a very slow burn for me, but as we got the climax, it became very exciting, and all the pieces that seemed unrelated at first, came together in a very clever tapestry and surprised me in a way that I did not see coming, something that does not happen very often for me with these books. There was one final surprise for store in me for Daniel, that completely shocked me. Birdie's medical condition ends up complicating things, and made her more aware of some very inconvenient truths that she did not know how to face before. This showed so much character growth for her, and really gave the extra characters a chance to really shine, something that Shape of a Heart did not have.
The final act was so sweet, and wrapped everything up in a nice little package. Even during the slow parts, I could really tell Bennet's writing had improved a lot (except she still does not know how to write a sex scene--even for YA novel). Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the clever plot, the complex characters, and the sweet themes and messages that were all woven together in this cozy mystery.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, and Cursing
notlikethebeer's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
A cosy young adult novel, perfect for autumnal evenings. I think a lot of my enjoyment of this came from the stakes being relatively low - although the protagonist, Birdie, dreams of being a private investigator, the mystery she's solving in this book isn't exactly life-or-death. At the same time, this book does manage to capture a lot of depth, especially around mental health problems, grief, and physical health problems. I've never read a book featuring a character with narcolepsy/cataplexy before, so that was really interesting, especially in conjunction with working the graveyard shift! And I found the descriptions of "going boneless" really interesting, something I learnt about in Psychology but never heard of first-person. That being said I don't know how much research the author did, of course, so maybe the descriptions were completely wrong. Anyway. There were parts that annoyed me a bit, Birdie could be quite a frustrating character at times - I often found myself wondering why on earth she was dealing with things so terribly - but then would remind myself that she is a home-schooled 18-year-old dealing with tricky griefs! A good reminder to myself to be a little more forgiving of characters (and people).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Abandonment
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Trafficking
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