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A review by rainbow_colored_glasses
The Moonstone Girls by Brooke Skipstone
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
~ This e-ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange of an honest review ~
• The cover of 'The Moonstone Girls' makes it seem like a cute romance which it (partly) is but it also deals deeply with homophobia, war and suicide to name its main themes.
- bad points
• This book has a huge problem regarding representation; while both protagonists are gay, they are also white. And not only them but I could reccord 3 characters who are not white and just because they are walking stereotypes.
A mexican teenage boy and twins black women. The boy keeps randomly saying spanish words - so we can never forget he's spanish, I guess?. And the twins are the loud-sassy-black-friend trope we know and hate.
And to make things worse: all of them experience racism in the book;
• I was loving it until 2/3 of the book but when it came to the last 20% it all was ruined. The main romance was developed way too quickly, the main plot had little time to expand. It felt like the author just forgot that this was supposed to be important, not rushed scenes and time skipping;
• All the making-babies-part at the end (no, I'm not talking about sex) along with a scene where the characters compare football with rape could be excluded from this book, it were short but really uncomfortable and unnecessary.
+ good points
• I absolutely love the fact that the author made a playlist with all the mentioned songs in the book;
• Right from the beginning if someone had told me it was nonfiction, I would've believe it. It gave me what I see people talk about in 'Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" (wich I haven't read yet). Incredibly realistic. Until the very end;
• I love how we get the perspective of Tracy's mom, It's fascinating when we can learn about the parent's history life and have them be more than just a background character;
• The songs Tracy wrote were an beautiful addiction to the book;
• That was the first in a long time since I've cried with a book (twice!);
• The plot told in the synopsis talks a while to actually happen but there's so many interesting things that occurs before that, which makes you just enjoy the way to that point.
• There's a scene involving a woman/Tracy and a bathroom, and the author makes it seem all philosophical and all but let me tell you: if I enter in a bathroom and there's someone naked I WOULD ABSOLUTELY START SCREAMING. There is no way in hell I would act the same way as Tracy nor as this woman did. Not to mention it was gross (not ppl being naked but the not actually having a bath part);
-
• I feel like sometimes the author goes overboard in the feminist subject as to force things that doesn't necessarily are related to it in the narrative (example: the-being-naked-in-front-of-anyone-thing, which feels a lot like 'my body my choice' but that narrative where you say that for minors and they show revealing pictures thinking it's "empowerment");
-
• Tracy's obssesion with Jackie is SO WEIRD, she just starts "liking" her over a picture and fantasizing about her, like girl you didn't even talk to her once;
-
• The resolution at the end with Tracy and her father was terrible, we have the entire book of him being a terrible person to everyone, and then at the very end when he's extremely unwell and dying he gets all good and a perfect father and then dies- like ??? No, I don't want that at all, you don't get a pass for what you did and I do believe people can change but that in this book just felt off.
• The cover of 'The Moonstone Girls' makes it seem like a cute romance which it (partly) is but it also deals deeply with homophobia, war and suicide to name its main themes.
- bad points
• This book has a huge problem regarding representation; while both protagonists are gay, they are also white. And not only them but I could reccord 3 characters who are not white and just because they are walking stereotypes.
A mexican teenage boy and twins black women. The boy keeps randomly saying spanish words - so we can never forget he's spanish, I guess?. And the twins are the loud-sassy-black-friend trope we know and hate.
And to make things worse: all of them experience racism in the book;
• I was loving it until 2/3 of the book but when it came to the last 20% it all was ruined. The main romance was developed way too quickly, the main plot had little time to expand. It felt like the author just forgot that this was supposed to be important, not rushed scenes and time skipping;
• All the making-babies-part at the end (no, I'm not talking about sex) along with a scene where the characters compare football with rape could be excluded from this book, it were short but really uncomfortable and unnecessary.
+ good points
• I absolutely love the fact that the author made a playlist with all the mentioned songs in the book;
• Right from the beginning if someone had told me it was nonfiction, I would've believe it. It gave me what I see people talk about in 'Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" (wich I haven't read yet). Incredibly realistic. Until the very end;
• I love how we get the perspective of Tracy's mom, It's fascinating when we can learn about the parent's history life and have them be more than just a background character;
• The songs Tracy wrote were an beautiful addiction to the book;
• That was the first in a long time since I've cried with a book (twice!);
• The plot told in the synopsis talks a while to actually happen but there's so many interesting things that occurs before that, which makes you just enjoy the way to that point.
-
• I feel like sometimes the author goes overboard in the feminist subject as to force things that doesn't necessarily are related to it in the narrative (example: the-being-naked-in-front-of-anyone-thing, which feels a lot like 'my body my choice' but that narrative where you say that for minors and they show revealing pictures thinking it's "empowerment");
-
• Tracy's obssesion with Jackie is SO WEIRD, she just starts "liking" her over a picture and fantasizing about her, like girl you didn't even talk to her once;
-
• The resolution at the end with Tracy and her father was terrible, we have the entire book of him being a terrible person to everyone, and then at the very end when he's extremely unwell and dying he gets all good and a perfect father and then dies- like ??? No, I don't want that at all, you don't get a pass for what you did and I do believe people can change but that in this book just felt off.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Death and Racism
Minor: Death of parent