VeganCleopatra

Shadows On the Moon had a very interesting premise, unfortunately it largely fell flat for me. The narrator, Suzume, tells the story in a very dry and even at times a distant manner. I never felt much genuine emotion and it made it difficult to really come to care about her or the other characters. The characters were also not fully developed outside Suzume. The attraction between Otieno and Suzume was a bit of a love at first sight situation, which devalued the relationship. Although as a character I did like Otieno due to his open and honest nature, which was something Suzume was lacking. Why did so much have to happen to Suzume? It was endless drama, none of which I could come to care for due to the aforementioned dry telling. Suzume's revelation at the end, which overall is just that she has been an idiot, was too long coming. I did, however, appreciate her willingness to ignore assumed gender roles, such as her mother telling her a women is unhappy unless she has children. Ha!

I found large patches of the book to be very dull. There were far too many details regarding learning to dance, play a musical instrument and details on the clothing in general that were all pretty boring. Overall, the book needed to be more concise and evoke more emotion from the reader to be more successful.