Inspired by the legends of Chang'e, the Chinese goddess of the moon, Tan puts her own unique spin on the origin.. and turns it from a classic parable into something more tragic and heartfelt. While the choice certainly allowed me to be more invested in the result of Chang'e's story, something still feels slightly off about this story.

Of course, I enjoyed the rich use of symbolism and the relatively elegant prose. Unfortunately, I also felt like most of my favorite quotes were simply modernly rephrased proverbs, rather than the creative nature of the author.

Initially, there's a burst of urgency.. spiriting Xingyin away from all that she has known. Due to that, there's not a lot of time spent on side character development which I kept expecting to change, but for the most part.. it never did. Prince Liwei might be the only real exception to that and so, he's also the only other character I really felt able to connect with.

Ironically, it feels like we get to know the Empress better than any of the other tertiary characters, including those we see in day to day events. All of which really just leads to a feeling of imbalance within the story. There are so many potentially interesting characters, some of which are clearly meant to be moving.. that just don't do anything for me because of the lack of evolution.

Overall, the story just appears more substantial than it is to me, and I feel a bit sad about it. I'm always happy to see representation of my mixed-Asian heritage in modern media and if I'm being fair, Tan did a much better job than some of the bigger names out there. But as lovely as the story is, it's still only slightly more than mediocre.. and I'm on the hunt for that author who will achieve the extraordinary.

(I received this title as an ARC, but also purchased two copies. All opinions are mine and freely given.)

Angie

Written on Jul 22, 2022

Proceed With Caution:

The author lists the following content warnings: violence, blood, gore, alcohol consumption, death, separation, attempted assault (brief), kidnapping, bullying.

The Basics:

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is narrated by the immortal daughter of Chang'e, Xingyin. She's been hidden from the Celestial Kingdom, because her presence would mean death for her mother. But when her powers become strong enough to detect, Chang'e sends Xingyin away for both of their safety. Now, Xingyin is all alone in the kindgom, but she's determined to make her way back to the moon and live freely with her mother.

My Thoughts:

Did I pick up Daughter of the Moon Goddess because I loved the movie Over the Moon? Yes. That movie was my introduction to Chang'e, so I got super excited to see a book about her! Well, kind of. Obviously, this is about her secret daughter, Xingyin. The plots are 100% different, and I enjoyed them both for their differences. This one toes that line between Adult and YA, which was interesting. Xingyin is an adult, but the tone is more coming of age as she's on her own for the first time ever.

The only thing that kept me from loving Daughter of the Moon Goddess was how easily everything came to Xingyin. Every situation was set up so conveniently that there really was no conflict until the very end, and even then it was solved too swiftly. I don't want to spoil anything, but imagine Xingyin roaming around, she gets hungry, but has no food, and a random person is like "Oh no, I seem to have packed double lunch! Would you care to share, kind lady?" And it happens to be her favorite food. Then when she's faced with a difficult choice, she picks something totally out of left field and everyone is like "OMG! Of course you can choose this option that wasn't an option!" Like...what?! This goes on for the entire book. No fear of Xingyin failing.

What I did enjoy about Daughter of the Moon Goddess was that Xingyin was willing and able to do whatever it took to progress her self-improvement and free her mother. Yes, like I said, convenient situations simply fell into her lap. But she was smart enough to take them and tweak them to suit her needs. She never lost sight of the reason she was doing all of this. Even when her love for the prince threatens to distract her, she pushes through. She's also the one doing the rescuing here. Not just of her mother, but the prince and the kingdom as a whole. Sure, she might be doing it for selfish reasons at first, but Xingyin still tends to do what she feels is right. It just happens to also be self-serving and she doesn't apologize for it.

I did absolutely love the last quarter-or-so of Daughter of the Moon Goddess. The plot really picks up when Xingyin starts her dragon quest. There is one part that fell into the overly convenient trap, but the book was getting long enough that I didn't mind not having that dragged out. The ending was bittersweet, but there's a whole nother book coming! I can't wait to see what Xingyin's next adventure is.

CrowNoYami

Written on Jun 8, 2022

I don't know how else to say it, but I loved this book. The characters were well rounded, the scenes beautiful and horrible all at once, and the story engaging where I couldn't put it down. Perfect. This book was perfect.