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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
A modern retelling of a common Chinese myth, the star-crossed love of the moon goddess Chang'E and hunter Houyi. Pacing was a bit messy, modern translation of the story was Very messy lol with a lot of unnecessary subplot that literally did nothing for the plot, but the story was cute as were Luna and Hunter and I found the story unique and charming, despite any shortcomings.
Spoiler
(with Hunter's parents making a ton of sacrifices only to hate and resent him later, Luna's mom cheating and her dad controlling her college admissions
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Mood: 🌝🥰🫢🥺😭
The Changs and the Yees hate each other, and they expect their children to hate each other as well. But when a chance meeting brings Luna Chang and Hunter Yee together, they do anything but hate each other. After purposefully getting expelled from his top tier school, Hunter finds himself attending the same high school as Luna, and the two are pulled closer and closer. The Changs and the Yees, however, have their secrets. Luna’s perfect family is proven to have flaws, and Yees dysfunctional family harbors their own prejudices and hates. But the families have their loves and loyalties, too, and as the love of Luna and Hunter threaten this familial peace, cracks form in the earth, and the man hunting the Yees finds his prey. Luna and Hunter must sacrifice everything in order to be together, but will it be enough?
This book was absolutely amazing and brought me to tears! I loved Hunter’s dynamic with his brother, Cody, and Cody was such a little sweetheart! Luna’s relationship with her parents starts off so nice; I love how her characters arcs to reveal that her parents aren’t the perfect people she’d always thought, and how that gives her the courage to decide what she wants for herself. I like how she and Hunter challenge each other, too, how they have different visions of the future and different understandings of their heritage, and how they each have to confront that and grow personally to accept the viewpoint the other offered. It made their relationship more real and complex, not just some simple infatuation where they’d do anything to please each other. The way this book blended the stories of Romeo and Juliet and Chang’e and Houyi was beautiful, and I absolutely cried at the end. Highly recommend!
This was. Paaaaainfully slow. I kept reading in hopes that Something would happen other than characters saying things to each other, but alas. That only unfolded in the last 30 or so pages and those few pages were not worth getting through the rest of it.
Excellent blend of romance and mythology, taking place in modern America between two star-crossed lovers. This book never dragged, held my interest well, and blended themes of family secrets, the American Dream, parental expectations, and forbidden love with magical objects and powers. I really felt that the love story between the two teens was genuine and sweet. The imagery of the arrows and the moon was perfectly blended in and can provide for great discussion.
(3.5/5) the first chapters were good and i already thought to give it a minimum 4 stars rating, but as the story went on, it turned out to be flat. it didn't get better, nor did it get worse. it was a constant ride, without any memorable climax or exciting things happening. however, i personally think that the houyi-chang'e legend was portrayed uniquely as i have only read two retellings of them. it was uncommon yet enthralling to have the legend set in 1991 US, with the life of two high schoolers who were later in love. on the other side, another thing that bothered me was that the truth of the whole magical events was only revealed at the very end of the book, leaving me guessing in my entire reading journey (which should have been fun, but considering that the ending was so unsatisfying, it rather left me bewildered). it took me time to realize that emily x.r. pan is also the one who wrote the astonishing color of after (which i have read in 2021) and i reminisced how both beautiful and depressing her writing was in tacoa, and i could feel that she also put her best in aattm. this book might not be for me but i will always remember luna and hunter cute love story, they were so sweet and lovely i want to have them in my pocket.
mysterious
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
Imagine Romeo and Juliette but with Taiwanese/Chinese immigrant families and mythology. There were a few patches of the story that I thought could’ve used some more depth but overall, I really loved it, especially the ending.