The Night & Its Moon

Product Information

I was extremely excited for this book after hearing about queer high-fantasy series so I was ecstatic to get an early release copy. It was very easy to get into, and managed to be an 'easy read' without being overwritten or simplistic in the plot or themes. The author somehow encompassed dozens of perspectives without it ever being confusing or messy, or making you feel deprived of one character's story - contrary to something we typically see in YA or Adult fantasy. The writing has way too much telling and not enough showing. The sentences get clunky and messy and I had to stop to reread them to make sense of them. “She was growing increasingly lucid as to the weight of her decisions and the consequences that may result from her choice to follow an assassin into the woods.” This is trying so hard to mimic the beautiful, flowery prose of classic fantasy, but it overdoes it in a bad way.

I’m also put off by the marketing of this book as the only sort of bisexual representation in fiction. There’s a lot of queer fiction, and even whole queer bookstores, which is not to say there’s ENOUGH queer fiction. The author stated (in her B&N live interview) that she doesn’t actually read much romantic fantasy, which really put a bad taste in my mouth. You can’t claim to be representative of a genre if you don’t know what else exists in that genre. And then we get to the story... I can't even begin to imagine writing something so blatantly insensitive as to fetishize a POC character AND have them be enslaved... I'm actually dumbfounded how this made it past LGBTQAI+ beta readers.

I finished this book last night but forced myself to wait a day before writing this review due to the sheer amount of emotions I was feeling.

Waning Gibbous: The waning gibbous phase is between a full moon and a half moon. Waning means it is getting smaller. Pacing was far too slow. There is typically room for slower pacing in fantasy, but not to this extend. There still needs to be tension to draw the reader in and keep them there.The attention to “tiny” description details: scents, foods, and scenery. The details of the music and nameless folks in the tavern came alive. I always want to be immersed in a book and Piper delivered with detailed descriptions. But following the night of each full moon, as the Moon orbits around Earth, we start to see less of the Moon lit by the Sun. Eventually, the Moon reaches a point in its orbit when we don’t see any of the Moon illuminated. At that point, the far side of the Moon is facing the Sun. This phase is called a new moon. During the new moon, the side facing Earth is dark. Dragons and Witches and Succubi, Ohh My! Let us also not forget to mention the fae. The Fae. The. Fae. If you like mythical creatures, immersive storytelling, and flawed characters this book is for you. Since this author is committed to self-publishing and not outsourcing anything to a publishing house; I am hoping that with the profits from this hugely successful book launch this author can hire the type of writing professionals that are needed to put a final polish on these books technically (and who won’t be an internet bully to customers, after the fact)! Because she is oozing with talent and a final polish from an industry pro is all it would take to make them truly outstanding. I started just screaming at Amaris by this point because she was like, ‘UGH, IT’S NOT MY FAULT. I DID NOTHING WRONG; IT’S ALL THESE DARK FAE’S FAULT BECAUSE I AM BLAMELESS!!!!’ I want to fight her so badly. When the fae find out she’s a reever, and they’re all like, GASP, I TOO KNEW A REEVER, and she’s immediately like, ‘oh, was his hair red? Yeah, that’s Ash’s dad.’ I was about to give up on this bullshit for the third time. But I persevered. She throws a fit that Gadriel and Zaccai keep calling her a witch but then continues disrespecting them by calling them demons.

The reason I say this is not only because it's the weakest part of the book, but because it is very heavy-handed in its telling rather than showing. Piper has admitted that she loves sensory details, which I think can really enhance a reader's experience, but she goes overboard detailing every little thing. There's so much information that the reader doesn't need to know, and is completely irrelevant to the story. There's no subtext, nothing for the reader to infer. The narrator is holding your hand the entire time. This book also has impressive religious commentary, exploring the multifacetedness of religion and religious trauma.Himself” here is incorrect because it’s a reflexive pronoun, a pronoun that refers to the subject of the sentence. But the subject isn’t “him”—it’s “something.” What CJ means is “Something changed in him, as if he was waking himself from a spell.” (Or, maybe, in fewer words: “Something changed, as if he woke from a spell.”)

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. It is, simply put, not a good book. As others have said, it certainly COULD be, but it does not live up to the hype. The pacing is off, the prose is purple, and it’s riddled with easily avoidable grammar and spelling errors. But for a day or two, I remained hopeful about the rest of the series. Again: It COULD be good. Fantasy author with an M.A. in Folklore, who loves to take pictures, eat french fries, and live my life as an all-around creative forest nymph! I'm so excited to bring you with me on my journey as I step out of our everyday lives and into the new fantasy world within The Night and Its Moon fantasy series! The position of the Moon and the Sun during Each of the Moon’s phases and the Moon as it appears from Earth during each phase. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The Night and Its Moon asks the reader to define different types of love in the context of being an outsider, being different, and being queer, while leaving the reader open to establish their own emotions which is once again a rarity for popular fantasy novels. It's a beautifully written, enthralling epic that is hard to compare to other works. The Moon displays these eight phases one after the other as it moves through its cycle each month. It takes about 27.3 days for the Moon to orbit Earth. However, because of how sunlight hits the Moon, it takes about 29.5 days to go from one new moon to the next new moon.It is also disappointing to hear that there are allegations of plagiarism. I am unfamiliar with The Witcher, but another review has done her due diligence in this area. I’d encourage you to watch her review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W043d... This book was written in 6 days and it shows. Piper is full of passion, telling the story of two girls who want nothing more than to be together. It's what drove her to write 20,000 words a day as she was drafting. Unfortunately, it appears to have been rushed not only in its writing, but in its entire production. Dialogue. Any well read person, regardless of their personal writing experience, understands the formatting of dialogue. There was no formatting in this sample. Also, dialogue tags and/or action indicators to who was speaking seemed to be optional.