The Girl Who Chased the Moon
Publication date/ Length: 2010 / 269 pages
Synopsis (from the jacket cover): “Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew — a reclusive, real-life gentle giant — she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life.”
First line: It took a moment for Emily to realize the car had come to a stop.
Review: Allen’s first novel, Garden Spells, is the only novel I have ever recommended to multiple readers and not received one single complaint. Everyone I have passed Spells to has loved this charming novel just as much as I did. So, needless to say, I have had very high expectations of any of Allen’s subsequent novels. Sugar Queen was fine, but not nearly as pleasurable as Spells. And Moon falls somewhere in between the first two.
Happily, Allen’s lovely sense of imagery is strongly present in her latest novel, right from the first page:
“The two giant oaks in the front yard looked like flustered ladies caught mid-curtsy, their starched green leaf-dresses swaying in the wind.”
“The air outside was tomato-sweet and hickory-smoked, all at once delicious and strange.”
In Allen’s world, loneliness smells like maple syrup and wallpaper changes to mirror the mood of its inhabitant. This, I love. Allen manages to incorporate magical realism just enough to make her readers smile knowingly (yes, that IS what joy or fear smells like, I just never realized this!). She has the spirit of a poet and manages to take a common genre and wrap it in uncommonly beautiful language.
However, I would have loved this novel so much more with a slightly different ending. I can’t reveal what I didn’t like without spoiling the unifying mystery of the novel, but the explanation of the lights in the woods just didn’t work for me.
But, if this bit was tweaked, then I would have thoroughly loved Moon. Emily and Julia are pitch-perfect, as are their paramours. I also enjoyed how Allen answers the question “Can you even truly go home again?” So, I do recommend Allen’s latest novel, but with minor reservations…
