The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I rant and rave about Sarah Addison Allen a lot, but she’s just so good at what she does. Granted, what she does is very formulaic, but I really like the formula.
Sleepy southern towns with very particular social circles and sets of rules, prickly oppressive mothers and society types, lots of traditions, rebellion, repressed or unrequited feelings and usually a protagonist who really hasn’t found him or herself fully, yet. And magic.
Sign. Me. Up.
As willing as I am to love these stories, I am not so blinded by love that I can’t see their flaws, too. The Girl Who Chased the Moon had every single thing that Allen’s books always have, but for some reason the emotional connection wasn’t there. There were a lot of characters who could have received more stage time and really yanked on my unraveling heart-strings, like Stella, Vance, and the character breezily mentioned throughout but not introduced at the end.
Emily could have gone to high school and been tormented more than the normal, high school-standard amount. Win could have a personality, not just a completely baseless (other than hormonal) motive. Julia could have been more reserved, emotionally scarred. Sawyer could have been more reserved, more emotionally scarred. I mean, that whole “Alexander men” thing was just tossed at me and then snatched away. I want depth and family legends damnit! Speaking of…
The family legend thing could have been explored in more depth. To sum up, a LOT of things that could have really enriched this book lay fallow in the field.
But it was still a very good read. I can only hope that in any subsequent stories Sara Addison Allen will be in top form and will emotionally devastate me just the way I like it.