Let’s start this blog with a lovely fairy tale I read in October!

I first heard about The Girl Who Drank the Moon in a New Yorker ad. The cover looked lovely and the critics were laudatory (plus, it got a Newbery Medal!) . So I decided it was a must read for me! I think that although this kind of books may be primarily destined to a younger audience, an enchanting story is often just what grown ups need too.  And there is always something to learn from them.

Moreover  the plot there was intriguing. The story is about a place  named the Protectorate where each year, a baby is given as a sacrifice to the witch that is believed to inhabit the woods, to prevent her from destroying the whole village. But the witch is in fact a kind one, that takes the babies and send them to other cities where they are welcomed and taken care of by loving families. On her way to these places, she feeds them with starlight. One day though,she makes a mistake and gives the girl she is carrying, moonlight instead, which enmagicks her. And that’s how problems begin.

I found the idea of starlight and moonlight eating delightful and was eager to understand the reasons of this misunderstanding between the witch and the Protectorate people.

And I was not disappointed. I found the writing elegant and the characters well written. It turned out this story involved a deceptive, manipulative  political power and this part of the story was really thought provoking. The book also offers a beautiful reflexion about love and its power, the consequences of choices made in its name, but also about transmission, grief and the origin of evil. I think different readers may find different layers of interpretation as this story is very rich and dense. There were also light touches of poetry  and a kind of  lyricism that pleased me a lot.

Overall a truly enchanting novel for young and adult readers alike. I spent a lovely time reading it.

Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5