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A review by citrus_seasalt
When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Reread from April 4 to 9th, 2025! No, it wasn’t an intentional choice to start it exactly 2 years from when I first read and finished it. (This’ll also probably be one of the only SMP books I actually review? Mostly because my original review and rating were made before the boycott, and I wanted to add my revised thoughts this time.) Fortunately, I still loved it, especially the romance, which was both beautiful and endearingly melodramatic! But I definitely can see why it isn’t liked by every reviewer, and I lowered my rating from a 4.75 to a 4.5 this time. Some vague spoilers ahead!
“When The Moon With Ours” straddles the line between a higher-stakes and somewhat dark fairytale, and a character-driven narrative. This is one of the things I like about the plot: while the public opinion on whether Miel and Samir are fleshed-out characters seems to be a little mixed, I still find them compelling, especially in the moments where their flaws are on full display. Consequentially, their internal conflicts are given just as much on-page time as the intrigue and plot twists, if not more. While I think Samir’s arc was the stronger one of the two, I was still interested in Miel’s, mostly because so much more of it is tied to the magical realism, and her struggles with her background and autonomy are made allegorical in a way. I’m a little disappointed that her dynamic with the Bonner sisters (and all the different ways it was fucked up, from a class to racial standpoint) wasn’t written with more depth, actually.
One opinion that didn’t change in my reread, though, was that I thought Samir’s transness (and his hesitant acceptance of it) was handled with a lot of care. McLemore’s commitment to writing an authentic character was evident— from the awkwardness of some of his intimate moments with Miel, to his disconnect with his birth/deadname and the person he thinks it represents, and even his moments of gender euphoria. (DON’T GET ME STARTED ON THE DEPRESSION REP, THAT FELT PERSONAL.) I feel like this book is one of the only times I can see a relationship between a transgender and cisgender character where the trans one isn’t only loved on a basic level, but actually seen. (Which, I think is kinda interesting to note once you remember McLemore came out as transgender themself, several years after this book’s publication and Stonewall Award.) And this is a more minor detail, but I genuinely loved how another part of the distinction between him and Miel’s POVs was shown in their different understandings of Aracely once her past was revealed?! To me, it showed how even though Miel could love Samir, they still had vastly different experiences. (AND ON SO MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS, TOO… like, I’d normally be quick to talk shit about Miel taking a while to separate Aracely from her pre-transition self, but not only does Aracely herself address that, there’s a lot more layers to Miel’s gradual understanding.)
The prose will be a hit or miss depending on the reader. Me personally, I loved the descriptions given to the different places throughout town, especially in the case of both characters’ households: they have a vivid (and welcoming) feel to them, not just from the commitment to including Miel’s Mexican heritage and Samir’s Pakistani-Italian heritage, but from the familiarity and picturesqueness they’re written with. (This includes both the houses themselves, and their parental guardians.) With some of these quieter and less melodramatic moments, especially those that indulged in the magical realism of the lovesick cures or the moon paintings, the flowery style works in this book’s favor. Though, I did also enjoy the twisted beauty of the glass pumpkins, and the forest with the glass coffin. (I’m just going to ignore some of the not-so-pretty logistics of Miel being left in there for so long, lol.)
With that said, this isn’t by any means a perfect book. As much as I praised the prose, oftentimes, it was as purple as the transformed pumpkins on the Bonner farm. I have a couple of annotations where I highlighted parts that stuck out to me as being profound, but then the paragraph it’s in continues to wax poetic until it seems repetitive. Samir and Miel’s relationship also suffers from the (annoying) Anna-Marie McLemore trope of one character lying to end a relationship, instead of admitting why they aren’t in a safe position to continue it. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen in the third act, but its placement doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
The Bonner sisters (or, las gringas bonitas) were also terrible villains, even if they posed an actual threat!! The final confrontation and their subsequent defeat is bullshit, their motivations are confusing, and they’re characterized more by their secrets than actual personality traits. It doesn’t help that their entire gimmick is being a collective, so whenever there’s something interesting revealed about them, they still can’t have their own dynamics and conflicts for longer than a paragraph or two. I’m also just bitter about them facing very few consequences by the end, I wish Miel could sic a rose onto their skin or SOMETHING😭 THEY DO NOT DESERVE HAPPINESS!! I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR CLOSETED SIBLING!! (Also, the Bonner parents were out of the picture for far too much of the story, why do we never get an explanation of why they’re afraid of their own daughters? How did the sisters gain that much influence? What went wrong in their upbringing?!?!)
However, I’m still very happy to have revisited this!! (And it was kinda divine intervention, to be honest?) I think this is my favorite from McLemore’s catalog, with “Lakelore” being second to it. Also maybe don’t listen to me, I feel like all of the issues I found with it would lower the rating by 1 or 2 stars if it were any other book, I just really loved the poetry and characters, and have a sorta nostalgic attachment to “When The Moon Was Ours” because I read it literally the year I got into reading and AMM’s work😞🙏
……………………
original review (April 4, 2023):
HOOOOLY SHIT ok this book was like. so many things. It was poetic, beautiful, and then visceral at points. My god. I loved the magical realism, loved the air of mystery hidden underneath most of that for the book, the love story at the center of it all which was incredibly compelling, shdwhfineofnd WAUGH
“When The Moon With Ours” straddles the line between a higher-stakes and somewhat dark fairytale, and a character-driven narrative. This is one of the things I like about the plot: while the public opinion on whether Miel and Samir are fleshed-out characters seems to be a little mixed, I still find them compelling, especially in the moments where their flaws are on full display. Consequentially, their internal conflicts are given just as much on-page time as the intrigue and plot twists, if not more. While I think Samir’s arc was the stronger one of the two, I was still interested in Miel’s, mostly because so much more of it is tied to the magical realism, and her struggles with her background and autonomy are made allegorical in a way. I’m a little disappointed that her dynamic with the Bonner sisters (and all the different ways it was fucked up, from a class to racial standpoint) wasn’t written with more depth, actually.
One opinion that didn’t change in my reread, though, was that I thought Samir’s transness (and his hesitant acceptance of it) was handled with a lot of care. McLemore’s commitment to writing an authentic character was evident— from the awkwardness of some of his intimate moments with Miel, to his disconnect with his birth/deadname and the person he thinks it represents, and even his moments of gender euphoria. (DON’T GET ME STARTED ON THE DEPRESSION REP, THAT FELT PERSONAL.) I feel like this book is one of the only times I can see a relationship between a transgender and cisgender character where the trans one isn’t only loved on a basic level, but actually seen. (Which, I think is kinda interesting to note once you remember McLemore came out as transgender themself, several years after this book’s publication and Stonewall Award.) And this is a more minor detail, but I genuinely loved how another part of the distinction between him and Miel’s POVs was shown in their different understandings of Aracely once her past was revealed?! To me, it showed how even though Miel could love Samir, they still had vastly different experiences. (AND ON SO MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS, TOO… like, I’d normally be quick to talk shit about Miel taking a while to separate Aracely from her pre-transition self, but not only does Aracely herself address that, there’s a lot more layers to Miel’s gradual understanding.)
The prose will be a hit or miss depending on the reader. Me personally, I loved the descriptions given to the different places throughout town, especially in the case of both characters’ households: they have a vivid (and welcoming) feel to them, not just from the commitment to including Miel’s Mexican heritage and Samir’s Pakistani-Italian heritage, but from the familiarity and picturesqueness they’re written with. (This includes both the houses themselves, and their parental guardians.) With some of these quieter and less melodramatic moments, especially those that indulged in the magical realism of the lovesick cures or the moon paintings, the flowery style works in this book’s favor. Though, I did also enjoy the twisted beauty of the glass pumpkins, and the forest with the glass coffin. (I’m just going to ignore some of the not-so-pretty logistics of Miel being left in there for so long, lol.)
With that said, this isn’t by any means a perfect book. As much as I praised the prose, oftentimes, it was as purple as the transformed pumpkins on the Bonner farm. I have a couple of annotations where I highlighted parts that stuck out to me as being profound, but then the paragraph it’s in continues to wax poetic until it seems repetitive. Samir and Miel’s relationship also suffers from the (annoying) Anna-Marie McLemore trope of one character lying to end a relationship, instead of admitting why they aren’t in a safe position to continue it. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen in the third act, but its placement doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
The Bonner sisters (or, las gringas bonitas) were also terrible villains, even if they posed an actual threat!! The final confrontation and their subsequent defeat is bullshit, their motivations are confusing, and they’re characterized more by their secrets than actual personality traits. It doesn’t help that their entire gimmick is being a collective, so whenever there’s something interesting revealed about them, they still can’t have their own dynamics and conflicts for longer than a paragraph or two. I’m also just bitter about them facing very few consequences by the end, I wish Miel could sic a rose onto their skin or SOMETHING😭 THEY DO NOT DESERVE HAPPINESS!! I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR CLOSETED SIBLING!! (Also, the Bonner parents were out of the picture for far too much of the story, why do we never get an explanation of why they’re afraid of their own daughters? How did the sisters gain that much influence? What went wrong in their upbringing?!?!)
However, I’m still very happy to have revisited this!! (And it was kinda divine intervention, to be honest?) I think this is my favorite from McLemore’s catalog, with “Lakelore” being second to it. Also maybe don’t listen to me, I feel like all of the issues I found with it would lower the rating by 1 or 2 stars if it were any other book, I just really loved the poetry and characters, and have a sorta nostalgic attachment to “When The Moon Was Ours” because I read it literally the year I got into reading and AMM’s work😞🙏
……………………
original review (April 4, 2023):
HOOOOLY SHIT ok this book was like. so many things. It was poetic, beautiful, and then visceral at points. My god. I loved the magical realism, loved the air of mystery hidden underneath most of that for the book, the love story at the center of it all which was incredibly compelling, shdwhfineofnd WAUGH
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Deadnaming, Transphobia, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Death of parent
Minor: Racism, Sexual content