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cecilowo's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
whitneyt's review
5.0
I have read this series for years, and I have been waiting patiently for the last book. I think it was worth it. I really enjoyed the character growth, and I hope this will not be the last time we'll see these characters. I read this book in one sitting, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
otterno11's review
3.0
Morning Cold, the seventh and final volume of the Wet Moon series, provides at least a satisfying if not a groundbreaking conclusion. The tragic events of previous entries have left Trilby recovering from her injuries, though forever changed, while Myrtle, her attacker, is in custody, leaving Cleo and the rest of their friends to try to move on with their lives, maybe finding love. I have to admit, it’s been a few years since I read the last entry, so I can’t say I really recalled exactly who everyone is or many of the events leading up to this conclusion, which perhaps reflects some of the mixed feelings I had throughout the series. This review, then, will discuss my feelings on the series as a whole. At root, the atmosphere drawn by the series is impeccable and Sophie Ross’ diverse depictions feel wonderfully realistic, so she kept me reading until the end, in any case!
Wet Moon is, at heart, a slice of life series following the fall semester of a group of queer goth art kids attending school in the swampy deep south college town of Wet Moon, steeped in a hint of the surreal. Focusing on Cleo Lovedrop, her best friend Trilby, and a diverse host of other gothy, dorky young women struggling with insecurities about life, love, and growing up, while something dark, mysterious, and eerie is hinted at in the background. Campbell’s depiction of the setting is great; I could just feel the oppressive heat and humidity, smell the mildew and decay wafting from crumbling student housing and the swamps surrounding the town. I enjoyed the geeky pop culture references which placed the story sometime around the fall of 2004, not realizing at first that’s when Campbell beginning writing the story. Having been in college at roughly the same time, knowing some art school kids myself with all the requisite drama, the immaturity level and dialog seemed all too realistic to me, but is that enough to make it compelling? That, I feel, is the heart of what problems I have with the series.
While I don’t mind lack of “plot” in such an atmospheric piece, things do seem, as a whole, rather aimless, exacerbated perhaps by the glacial pace. That the staggered volume releases stretched out the rather simple story of everyday life and some strange occurrences that happened during a few months of late 2004 into more than a decade probably didn’t help, either.
While I really liked that Campbell seemed to express the diversity of the college experience, depicting characters of a wide variety of body-types, ethnicities, sexualities, and abilities, the number of characters might also have bogged things down a bit. In the end, I felt the balance between the verisimilitude of the naturalistic conversations and dropped threads of daily life and the pacing of the work broke the the series' focus quite a bit. Many of the elements, including the more weird “southern gothic” hints of the supernatural didn’t go anywhere, either and it all felt kind of padded. With a little editing, I feel like the series could be condensed into two or three volumes and would flow a lot better.
Wet Moon is, at heart, a slice of life series following the fall semester of a group of queer goth art kids attending school in the swampy deep south college town of Wet Moon, steeped in a hint of the surreal. Focusing on Cleo Lovedrop, her best friend Trilby, and a diverse host of other gothy, dorky young women struggling with insecurities about life, love, and growing up, while something dark, mysterious, and eerie is hinted at in the background. Campbell’s depiction of the setting is great; I could just feel the oppressive heat and humidity, smell the mildew and decay wafting from crumbling student housing and the swamps surrounding the town. I enjoyed the geeky pop culture references which placed the story sometime around the fall of 2004, not realizing at first that’s when Campbell beginning writing the story. Having been in college at roughly the same time, knowing some art school kids myself with all the requisite drama, the immaturity level and dialog seemed all too realistic to me, but is that enough to make it compelling? That, I feel, is the heart of what problems I have with the series.
While I don’t mind lack of “plot” in such an atmospheric piece, things do seem, as a whole, rather aimless, exacerbated perhaps by the glacial pace. That the staggered volume releases stretched out the rather simple story of everyday life and some strange occurrences that happened during a few months of late 2004 into more than a decade probably didn’t help, either.
While I really liked that Campbell seemed to express the diversity of the college experience, depicting characters of a wide variety of body-types, ethnicities, sexualities, and abilities, the number of characters might also have bogged things down a bit. In the end, I felt the balance between the verisimilitude of the naturalistic conversations and dropped threads of daily life and the pacing of the work broke the the series' focus quite a bit. Many of the elements, including the more weird “southern gothic” hints of the supernatural didn’t go anywhere, either and it all felt kind of padded. With a little editing, I feel like the series could be condensed into two or three volumes and would flow a lot better.
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