This is a lovely YA novel with a refreshing and imaginative setting. It was everything I would normally love but sadly fell a bit short for me.
I’d still recommend it to anyone who likes unique world building, metaphors to real life social situations, and a sweet and tentative friends-to-lovers romance.
The story alternates POVs between Rafay and Yasmine, two young people in a small, charming town (Stars Hollow style). Or at least the town, Moonlight Bay, used to be dreamy and magical with shimmering pink and lavender waters and an eclectic community. Now, a tragedy has struck the town and the waters are grey, the businesses are shuttered, and the people are burdened with loss.
Raf is an immigrant to Moonlight Bay but has spent most of his life there. As the tension in the crumbling town mounts, local sentiment towards immigrants turns unkind. Raf and Yas are torn between leaving their town behind and the desire to stay and protect the place they share. All the while, their friendship blossoms to something new and tentative.
I really liked both Raf and Yas, they are both thoughtful and kind characters who want the best for the people they care about. I also really enjoyed delving into the imaginative setting that Aisha Saeed created in Moonlight Bay.
Reading this book can be confusing though since you don’t really know what the rules of the world are - what’s magic, what’s possible, how similar things are to our world, the social structure. While this is super fun, it also required me to suspend my questions to keep reading despite not understanding what was happening.
There are also a lot of metaphors happening throughout the story. We get a glimpse into the experience of immigrants through the metaphor of Raf and the people who live in the forest. While I absolutely love this aspect of the book, I ended up spending a lot of time trying to understand the metaphors, to search for similarities in our society, and to question whether certain plot points were also metaphors or not. It definitely doesn’t take away from the book but it’s the challenge of reading an extended metaphor with insight into family dynamics.
I’d still recommend it to anyone who likes unique world building, metaphors to real life social situations, and a sweet and tentative friends-to-lovers romance.
The story alternates POVs between Rafay and Yasmine, two young people in a small, charming town (Stars Hollow style). Or at least the town, Moonlight Bay, used to be dreamy and magical with shimmering pink and lavender waters and an eclectic community. Now, a tragedy has struck the town and the waters are grey, the businesses are shuttered, and the people are burdened with loss.
Raf is an immigrant to Moonlight Bay but has spent most of his life there. As the tension in the crumbling town mounts, local sentiment towards immigrants turns unkind. Raf and Yas are torn between leaving their town behind and the desire to stay and protect the place they share. All the while, their friendship blossoms to something new and tentative.
I really liked both Raf and Yas, they are both thoughtful and kind characters who want the best for the people they care about. I also really enjoyed delving into the imaginative setting that Aisha Saeed created in Moonlight Bay.
Reading this book can be confusing though since you don’t really know what the rules of the world are - what’s magic, what’s possible, how similar things are to our world, the social structure. While this is super fun, it also required me to suspend my questions to keep reading despite not understanding what was happening.
There are also a lot of metaphors happening throughout the story. We get a glimpse into the experience of immigrants through the metaphor of Raf and the people who live in the forest. While I absolutely love this aspect of the book, I ended up spending a lot of time trying to understand the metaphors, to search for similarities in our society, and to question whether certain plot points were also metaphors or not. It definitely doesn’t take away from the book but it’s the challenge of reading an extended metaphor with insight into family dynamics.