When the Moon Hatched
Book Review
*Spoiler alert. There will be spoilers in this review.
I love, love, love this book. From the first page I was hooked. The world building in this book has been so well thought out. Each section of the world created with a history, a myth and its lore. Down to the specific kind of dragons and creatures in each.
The first chapter tells the mythology of the world and how it was formed, along with the five gods we contributed. Four are elemental, along with the fifth who was taken down by the others and trapped in a stone for all eternity. It felt like an ancient poem to introduce us to this world.
The elemental gods sing to the people of the world. Some hear one, two or three different elements. Then there are the ones who can’t hear the elements song, nulls. They are the homeless and the lost. The ones forced into servitude by those who can hear the songs.
We meet Raeve, a young woman hiding her identity to bring down the criminal element. She is morally grey, working for a secret resistant organisation and is on the hunt for her next mark. Raeve weaves amongst the nulls hiding the fact that she can hear elemental songs. She refuses to get close to anyone. It is clear she has history that we know nothing about. Then while she is hunting her mark, a hooded man follows her. But she refuses to engage. ‘Companionship is something I work hard to avoid. And mostly succeed. The harder you care, the more fragile everything seems’ (p22). Sometimes it seems like her past leaks through even if she doesn’t remember it. She keeps trying to fight it and push it down. Anything gets dropped back in the dark lake of her memory. ‘I don’t believe in much, but I do believe that the unknown needs to be handled with caution – much like a dragon. Leave them alone, and they rarely decide to attack’ (p361).
Raeve is full of banter and one liners. She is morally grey but caring as well. When we first meet her, we learn about Essi. Unfortunately when Raeve loses her is when her world comes crashing down and she gets drawn back into her past.
Then she is captured by a bounty hunter after she becomes ‘The Other’ and kills his men. We don’t learn much about The Other except that she takes control of Raeve’s body to fight for her. A guardian to protect her. We then move to torture and Raeve is put in prison. Then she is discovered by the dark hooded man she met a few days ago. She just wants vengeance for all those who have suffered. It’s why she joined a secret society to be able to take that vengeance. ‘Vengeance crackles through my veins, making the tips of my fingers itch’ (p199). Not that we truly know everything that happened to her after she was reborn, other than being covered in runes. We get a snippet in the name ‘Fire Lark,’ but now real answer for it. Other than Raeve doesn’t like fire.
He is already obsessed by her so when she is put to death, he saves her and takes her to his lands. Because Kaan is a King in his domain. But Kaan already knows her. He already loves her. We learn he has been searching the world for pieces of her dragon’s moon to put it back together, just for her. It is beyond romantic, beyond passion, beyond anything. He thought she was dead, but still, he loves her, still he is doing this for her.
This is very much an enemy to lovers, however there is much more to their love story than a simple enemy to lovers.
We slowly learn about Raeve’s past and her connection to Kaan. Along the way the book is interlaced with diary entries by Elluin. Finally, we learn that Raeve is Elluin. In another life her and Kaan were lovers, but Raeve doesn’t remember any of it. The more time she spends with Kaan she starts to remember her past. The biggest reveal is that Raeve/Elluin died. Years ago, and her dragon took her into the sky and died and turned into a moon. Somehow, for some reason the moon fell and Raeve was reborn.
There are so many layers to this book. So many layers to Raeve. The further into the book the more we learn. From the beginning we are following along with Raeve, learning about her as she learns about herself. There is so much more to learn and understand. The we learn more about ‘The Other,’ who I think is the soul of her dragon, Slatra. As her protector.
I absolutely love this book. There is heart and soul. You can see the passion of the author in this story. She has taken the time and care in the world building, the language, the characters and their back stories. I have to say this is probably the best book I have read this year. I already want to reread the book in the hopes of picking up more things in it. I was so absorbed the first time I read this that I didn’t find enough amazing quotes or make many notes.
We still have to wait until April next year for the next book. And I can’t wait. I can’t wait to learn what will happen about the truth of the Slaughter King, the fact the Elluin and Kaan had a daughter who Kaan thinks is his niece. Why Slatra came back to earth and how did Raeve come back to life. There are so many questions left unanswered and so much more to learn.