Shadows on the Moon

by Zoe Marriott

Trained in the magical art of shadow-weaving, sixteen-year-old Suzume, who is able to re-create herself in any form, is destined to use her skills to steal the heart of a prince in a revenge pot.

• ISBN10: 0763653446
• ISBN13: 9780763653446
• Publish Date: 24 April 2012 (first published 7 July 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Candlewick Press (MA)
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 447
• Language: English

Reviews

[mrs_mander_reads]

So, so good. I really enjoyed the fantasy/magic elements. I also love the Japanese/Asian culture, but with this was an #ownvoices book. It was less Cinderella than I thought it would be, but still good.

[wyvernfriend]

This year I discovered Zoe Marriott and I believe I have discovered an author I truly enjoy. I look forward to each one and sometimes use them as a bribe to get through others that are proving a bit of a slog. Though I must admit I have approached some of them with trepidation. What if this one won't be as good, what if I'm disappointed with this one?

And each one has surprised me by sucking me in and engaging me fully. This one more than some others. I could almost feel the heavy robes and it almost felt like blasphemy to sit down with a coffee instead of sitting down to a proper tea. Though reading while going through a tea ceremony would have been impolite too!

This is not to say that this is a perfect book and that there aren't moments where it lurched a bit or where I could see what the author was doing with the character, but it was damned close for me.

This is the story of Suzume and her three lives. The first is where she witnesses her family being massacred. Then her mother marries a man who has wanted her for many years and doesn't necessarily want her daughter as well. During this time Suzume finds that she can work with shadows and finds that this skill helps her cover up the fact that she is cutting herself to make herself feel better.

Her second life is as Rin, a lowly kitchen servant. I saw someone say that this was improbable but a lot of people don't notice servants. Many people don't notice the people who serve them in shops either (I know this from experience). When someone is somewhere you don't expect them to be, behaving in a way different from the normal you're used to with them, you can gloss over them quite easily. No-one expects the daughter of a noble house to be a drudge in a kitchen, combine this with her ability to shadow-weave and you've got a very good disguise.

Her third life is as Yue starts when she runs away, thinking she's killed her mother, and saves Akira, who is also a shadow weaver, and offers her help with a plan to get her revenge on her wicked step-father. Throughout all of this is woven Otieno who comes from a land where people use shadow-weaving and who loves Suzume, no matter what mask she's wearing. It turns out that Akira is an Oyama, or man who played the role of a woman in theatre and was good enough to become the Shadow bride of a prince. Bishounen are a part of Japanese culture and this was an intersesting use of that concept. It was interesting to have someone in the story for whom this was normal and apart from the moment of dissonance when Suzume realises the truth, is accepted as just part of Akira's character. As she presents as female, female pronouns are used, which is how I would address a friend in a similar situation.

The training, the work, the characters all made this a great story for me, other people's mileages may vary but it's one of my favourite reads of 2012.

Review originally posted on my blog Oh, For the Love of Books!

My Review:

When I read that tagline I couldn't help but be interested. While I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, it definitely wasn't what I got. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. Actually, quite the opposite. One reason I was so surprised I loved this book was because this is about as far from a happy book as you can possibly get. Shadows on the Moon is a hauntingly beautiful story about a young girl's journey of self-discovery and redemption.


Suzume:

This is one of those books where I both love and hate the main character. While I hated some of her decisions and wanted to yell at her, I understood why. When you first meet Suzume we get a glimpse of a young, mischievous little girl. But all to quickly her world is turned upside down. Her father and cousin are murdered before her eyes while she is lucky enough to get away. As you can imagine, this creates a huge amount of guilt in her. When he mother returns she won't let Suzume talk about what happened. Instead she just wants to move on therefore making all of this guilt build up inside of Suzume. Suzume eventually becomes a shell of her former self and keeps all of her emotions bottled up inside, causing her grief and anger to consume her.


Journey:

This story takes you on Suzume's journey for revenge and self-discovery. Revenge takes over her whole life and all she sees is fighting for her family. This guilt and anger consumes her. While this book was beautifully written, it was also incredibly hard to read. How Suzume deals with her depression was so incredibly heartbreaking. I can completely understand that she wants to avenge her family and make the one who did it pay for it, but I wanted to smack her because she went about it the wrong way. All she thought about was revenge and this was all her decisions were based on, no matter who they hurt. She wouldn't even let herself be happy because she wanted revenge so badly. My heart ached for her and her loss, but I wanted to jump into the book and show her that there were other ways of dealing with her depression.

Secondary Characters:

The secondary characters were well written, each with their own important part in this story. I actually hated her mother. She was weak, pathetic, and absolutely refused to stand up for herself. She could care less about Suzume and it was no wonder she was ruined. Her step-father was....insane. While I loved the romantic interests' faith in Suzume, I didn't love him. He truly cared about Suzume and wanted to be there for her no matter what, but for some reason I wasn't really feeling it. Its hard to get to really know him since I don't feel like he's really in the book that much. I truly loved Akira though. However, the ugh...reveal...was...weird? and to be honest kind of turned me off. But, that's just me. However, I still really liked her. She always tried to turn Suzume in the right direction and even if she didn't agree with her she always supported her. She became the sister she never had.

Writing:

To say this book was beautifully written is an understatement. Marriott is clearly a gifted writer. While I figured I wouldn't read this book when it became to depressing and I didn't like the character's actions, her writing was so well done that I became entranced. Even though these things bugged me, her words helped me understand Suzume's feelings.

Magic:

Shadows on the moon is a story full of magic. Suzume's abilities help her find herself and define who she is. It is a way for her to connect with others and come to terms with herself and others.

Overall:

Shadows on the Moon is a magical story about an abandoned and heartbroken girl learning to find herself. Is her journey easy? No. It's far from. While depressing and frustrating at times, I couldn't help but root for Suzume. She didn't deserve anything that happened to her but had to learn how to deal with it. This story is wonderfully written and hauntingly beautiful. I know that I will definitely keep an eye out for more of Marriott's books.