A review by valereads
When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I came into this book knowing very little about the plot itself and I felt that was a good place to start from. For those who do want to know a bit more this book follows two childhood friends, a trans boy called Sam and a girl with roses growing out of her wrists named Miel, as they come to terms with the fact they have fallen in love with each other. While this is happening Sam is just beginning to come to terms with the fact that he is transgender (a fact everybody except him seems to be aware of) and four local sisters are attempting to steal Miel's roses by whatever means necessary. On top of this there is also the mystery of where Miel comes from and what happened to her family that will have any reader intrigued.

There's little more I can say than this book was beautiful. The prose was lyrical and fairy tale-esque, and reading it felt like dreaming. That wasn't always a good thing though. As much as I enjoyed every other element of this novel, and I definitely did, it took me longer than I'd like to connect to the characters. That fairy tale, dreamlike quality to the writing made me feel distant from them. At times I found it easier to connect with the antagonistic Bonner sisters than with the main protagonists.

Overall I enjoyed this book very much. I think McLemore really did capture the trans experience well (no surprise as the author themself has come out as non-binary since writing it). This was my first time reading one of McLemore's books and I look forward to reading more from them in future.

Content Warnings: transphobia, homophobia, misgendering, outing, blackmail, racism, attempted suicide, drowning
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