A review by nytephoenyx
An Arrow to the Moon by Emily X.R. Pan

sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

An Arrow to the Moon is a modern retelling of the story of the archer who shot down nine suns and his wife, the moon goddess.Over the last couple months, I’ve become very familiar with multiple versions of Hou Yi and Chang’e’s story between this book, Daughter of the Moon Goddess, and researching the Mid-Autumn Festival for work. It’s appropriate, I suppose, because the Moon Festival is in about two weeks, so this is a timely book to be reading.

I wish I liked it more. I really, really wanted to enjoy this book, even before I knew what it was about, because I loved The Astonishing Color of After and Emily X.R. Pan is excellent at weaving the fantastic and unremarkable together into something breathtaking. An Arrow to the Moon had its moments, scenes where Luna’s firefly nests and peach trees and wind bringing money to Hunter sparked that magic. But for the most part, I struggled with this book.

From a technical perspective, there are far too many chapters and they are all too short. If it had just been Hunter and Luna’s POVs, I think it would have been alright. Instead, we had Hunter, Luna, Hunter dad, Hunter’s mom, Hunter’s brother Cody, Luna’s Dad, Luna’s Mom, and Rodney Wong (our mortal villain). That is eight POVs. It was way too much and made the book feel scattered. Many of the chapters were only a page and a half long. I know why Emily X.R. Pan did this, but I think in doing it, the focus on the main plot often got lost.

The main plot of this book is the retelling and Hunter/Luna’s story, but the two subplots easily took over the story. One – the debt owed by Hunter’s parents, pursue by Rodney Wong – felt like the primary plot most the time. Luna’s parents had their own subplot as well. It came on hard in the second half of the book and was mostly just annoying. I forgive Cody’s POV a little because he was telling a second story related to the Mid-Autumn Festival (the story of the Jade Rabbit, though less gruesome here than the original version). Because there were so many distractions, the ending of the book came on like a baseball bat to the side of my head. It wasn’t the good kind of surprise – it was the “what the heck just happened?!” kind of surprise.

If I hadn’t known the myth behind An Arrow to the Moon, the ending would have seemed so illogical and out of the blue. Since I do know the myth, it was somewhat expected but still came on too quickly and dramatically.

Between the scattered nature of the book and the way the ending just exploded after very slow pacing for the entire story… I find myself conflicted between supporting the author and being super disappointed. Emily X.R. Pan’s magical realism is fantastic… but this book felt like a mess to me. I guess I’d say proceed with caution. Prepare for a lot of viewpoints, some plot imbalance, and a really quick ending. Try to enjoy the ride.

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