Book Review: The Girl who Drank the Moon

From the blurb I had the impression it was a funny coming of age in a fantasy setting but it's more like a modern day fairy tale with themes of grief, longing, and hope.

Furthermore this story has a rich cast including disheveled women, bright women, heroic women, evil women, morally grey women, magic women, tragic women, and most importantly, very old women.

There's also no monarchy, if you were tired of that thing.

Barnhill tells the story of a town, the Protectorate, which lives in fear of a witch in the woods, they quench her appetite for violence by leaving the youngest child in the woods each year. The witch, however, is a kind old woman who takes each baby to a new family from the Free Cities. On the way, she feeds each child magic from the stars, giving them strength and feeding them.

One day, she accidentally feeds a baby the moon which, unlike temporary star magic, puts the baby on the path to becoming a wielder of magic. So she decides to raise the baby as her own, waiting for the day the baby turns 13 for her magic to reach its full potential.

Barnhill has a beautiful way of describing magic. To paraphrase from the book it's like; honey dripping off a spoon, something pulled from the cracks in the world, something deep inside that bellows and takes flight, something that feeds a weary soul.

I rate this book 4.5/5 and I definitely recommend reading it.