A powerful tale of magic, love and revenge with a strong female lead set in fairy-tale Japan; this is "Cinderella" meets "Memoirs of a Geisha". Trained in the magical art of shadow-weaving, sixteen-year-old Suzume is able to recreate herself in any form - a fabulous gift for a girl desperate to escape her past. But who is she really? Is she a girl of noble birth living under the tyranny of her mother's new husband, Lord Terayama, or a lowly drudge scraping a living in the ashes of Terayama's kitchens, or Yue, the most beautiful courtesan in the Moonlit Lands? Whatever her true identity, Suzume is destined to capture the heart of a prince - and determined to use his power to destroy Terayama. And nothing will stop her, not even love.I have been a fan of Zoe Marriott since I read and loved The Swan Kingdom about four years ago, so I was absolutely ecstatic when Raimy from readaraptor let me borrow her copy! Yay, Raimy! Thanks!
In Shadows on the Moon, Marriott weaves together a well known fairytale with magic and romance, creating a totally amazing and enchanting read. This book roughly follows the story of Cinderella, with a young girl of noble birth being forced into the life of a servant girl and eventually finding happiness, but rather than just being a rags to riches story, Shadows on the Moon has much darker tones of revenge and ambition making this book much more thanm just a fairytale retelling.
While I was utterly charmed by the changes in the story, what totally grabbed me was Zoe Marriott's writing. I have always loved the beautiful way she makes the story sound, how the description really paints a vivid picture in your head and she really did not fail to please in this book. I really could imagine this sort of historical Japanese world she created and in the scenes where Suzume is shadow weaving I could see this magic in my head.
The characters were fantastic too. My favorite being Otieno, he was just the right amounts of sweet and kind and strong and sexy and I really loved any part of the book in which he appeared. Every other character was given just the right amount of development. Akira and Youta, Suzume's mentors, were wise and kind but also had their own discerning features. Though as much as it kills me to say this, I didn't really like Suzume as much, I think that while I felt for her and empathised with her, I couldn't stand the decisions she made. At some points, I really hated her because she wasn't thinking right.
The romance was sweet though, the time sthat I liked Suzume the most were the points where she was around Otieno. I loved how their relationship devloped and I loved how they were themselves around each other, it really seperated the romantic scenes from the other scenes.
Another thing to point it; this book has scenes of self-harming in it and I really liked how Zoe wrote this with nothing held back. These scenes were very realistic but did not glorify the actions, so I definitely applaud her for this.
Overall, Shadows om the Moon was a gorgeous take on the Cinderella fairytale. I totally loved the characters, the relationships and the copmplexity and well... pretty much everything!
Overall rating: A+
Stand alone/series: Stand alone
UK Release: july 4th 2011
Publisher: Walker Books
Book obtained via: Borrowed from Raimy at Readaraptor!
isn;t it just amazing! :D I'm happy to enforce this book onto any one and everyone! ;)
ReplyDelete