Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - When the Moon Was Ours

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

26 reviews

darcy124's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Loved this book so much! Only gave it a 4.75 instead of a 5-star rating because the beginning took me a while to get into and understand and one scene in the beginning threw me off completely. I think everyone should read this book.

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meganmagicmusings's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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humanmosquito's review against another edition

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inspiring lighthearted reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

When I first started writing out I didn’t really like the lack of plot, I’d somehow skipped over the prevalence of Literary within Magic Realism. That behind us, I did really enjoy this book in the end.

I like the fuzzy line Sam walks where he’s not quite what is expected in a trans man. (I did end up reading him as a transmasc butch, but I’ll admit that interpretation is largely projection) And I like the way he’s carved out a place for himself to be comfortable in this small, bigoted town. This is true for most characters in the book, who are immigrants or 1st gen.

Writing style wise, I enjoyed the prose, I found it evocative but I remember thinking it was too dense at one part of the book. (I think during the last act)

One thing I really liked about this book is that Sam and Miel are horny and sexually attracted to each other without it feeling voyeuristic. I’m used to other young adult authors really focusing on the characters’ atractions and intimate scenes for effect but McLemore shows these very sensual, sexually charged scenes with very little touching and skips over sex in a way that makes the characters feel very real—in the way that they’re granted privacy from the narrative.

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schuy's review

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

absolute fever dream book

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thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Lush, tender, romantic, and tinged w/ magic, When the Moon Was Ours is a book that adeptly, gently forces the reader to slow down. The writing--w/ each word seemingly carefully and thoughtfully chosen--teters on the edge of purple prose, but McLemore somehow always strikes the balance and does it just right. The mystery and secrets and truths are interesting; the characters and their relationships w/ one another complex and full of depth; though I do find some the characters' decisions frustrating.

What I most appreciate about the book, however, definitely has to be the empathetic, sensitive portrayal and exploration of its transgender characters, particularly Samir. This is my first time reading such a book, and it is so revelatory, insightful, and heartrending. A tender and imaginative work that thoughtfully explores themes of identity, love, and truth.

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sandy_21's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

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littlebluenaiad's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

1.5

The prose was pretty. I’ll admit that. My problem with it, however, was that it distracted from whatever was happening at any given moment. The chapter titles make no sense. Sam and Miel are making out and I can’t even realize until a couple pages in when they start taking off their clothes.

Sam frees Miel from the glass coffin, and I don’t even know until they’ve run far from it. And when there were petals all over Sam’s face, I wasn’t sure who they were coming from.

And maybe that was the point. But I didn’t enjoy it. It felt like the text was so descriptive that it circled from show don’t tell back to show, because I can only realize what’s happening once the characters tell me. And it was also so, so repetitive. I can’t count how many times it was reiterated that the Bonner sisters had red hair, that they could have anything they wanted, that they wanted the magic of Miel’s roses no matter how many times she told them they wouldn’t do what they wanted from them.

Also, more distressingly, it was very uncomfortable whenever Miel would say that she thought of Sam as her dead brother. Every time, I wanted to shake her and scream, “Then WHY did you sleep with him on page 3? WHY can’t you stop of making out with him?” Needless to say it was. Very uncomfortable. And I wish that they were just friends, even without all the brother comparisons, because I felt like the fact that they both just thought of kissing whenever near one another distracted from their friendship.

Instead, the book ends with them about to have sex.

I almost wish that this were a children’s or middle grade book instead, because the concept would work so nicely for that.

One last problem I had with this book. They kept saying that people called Miel and Sam “Honey and Moon”, but they really only call her “Honey” as in “Miel”, not because she ate it off spoons and knives and was oh-so quirky, but because Miel is literally her name. And literally no one called Sam “Moon” in the entire book. Yet another example of telling instead of showing despite the rich, descriptive writing style. Thank you for reading, this concludes my rant.

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taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-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

3.0

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aimiller's review

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

This book is written so tenderly and sweetly and I appreciate it so much for what it does but it also... woof there's just so much that's not my cup of tea in terms of trans writing. Which doesn't mean it's Bad or Bad Representation per se, just not what I want and need--and granted, I'm an adult and in a different stage of my life than the audience of this! Just didn't love it, and found myself wincing a lot.

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outtoexist's review against another edition

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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? No

3.5

This is an absolutely amazing book, but I just don't like the dream-like trace magical realism style. It is too slow and unclear for my preferences. However, the meat of this story is incredible and it has beautiful things to say about being trans. I do suggest it, despite my own rating.

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