When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town.

But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up - including Sam's past.

// the speculative fiction authors challenge
// part 2: Anna-Marie McLemore

Anna-Marie McLemore is, in their own words, an author of queer fairy tales. It sums up When The Moon Was Ours perfectly. It's gentle and melancholy and haunting and painted in a veil of gorgeous atmosphere.

I really liked this. I like that McLemore writes about trans characters. It's don't very respectfully and the world deserves more books like this.

A matter of personal taste: I am not a big fan of the fairy tale kind of magic (I never know whether to read all sorts of big messages from it, or just let it colour the atmosphere...). I think, in this book, the massive usage of nature imagery and colours etc. takes too much attention from the very likable characters of Sam and Miel.

But... personal matter... If you like the fairy tale style, and if you want to read books with queer MCs, I'd say McLemore is good place to start.

Will I read McLemore in the future? If the right time and the right mood came together, probably, yes.

3.5*

If this book doesn't win the Printz I'll eat my hat. Or someone's hat. I read it in one day. Incredible.

To the boys who get called girls,the girls who get called boys,and those who live outside these words.To those called names, and those searching for names of their own.To those who live on the edges,and in the spaces in between.I wish for you every light in the sky.

When the dedication of a book makes you tear up, that's when you know it's going to be good. That's when you know it's going to become one of YOUR books. The ones that feel compatible with your very soul.

This wasn't just good, it was phenomenal. Enchanting writing swept me up in the story from the very beginning, pulling me out of my papasan chair and into the swell of a carved-out pumpkin, a rusty old water tower, a painted silver moon. If simple, straightforward sentences full of action are the way you like your books, this one probably isn't for you. But if you read for the feeling of words–for the way they wrap around you, caress your skin, scratch at your ribs and your heart–you'll love Anna-Marie McLemore's writing. She takes a concept and, rather than trying to make you understand the mechanics of it, she writes the senses–the touch-taste-smell-sight-sound of it. The atmosphere. The impression.

She builds characters from the inside out, the essence of a spirit existing before their appearance, or their gender, or their name. But those things are still deemed important. The way we present ourselves to the world, the secrets we keep and the lies and truths we tell, the labels we choose for ourselves–those things grow from the core of us, and they belong to us and us alone. They are a choice that only we can make, based on who we are in our minds, our guts, our hearts.

This is a book about personhood. It is about the power of words, and the power of the secrets that we hold close and protect. It is about those secrets and how we are never obligated to tell them, that they are ours to keep or share as we wish. It is about how when we do decide to share with the people that we love, we can discover the potential within ourselves to grow a rainbow of roses, or summon the glowing moon.

I'm a trans guy, and culture is one of the most important things to me. When the Moon Was Ours - a book that shares the magic in culture and the trans experience - captured my heart. The writing style felt like hope, like maybe love is possible and good things can stay pure. I read the book in about four hours, it spoke to me that much. The ending is more abrupt than I would've liked and didn't feel very flushed out, which is why I'd say my rating is more like 4.75/5, but despite that I think it's a book tied directly to my soul and I'll be forever grateful it was written.