In the Protectorate, the Council of Elders leaves a baby in the forest every year as a sacrifice to appease a misunderstood witch. Instead of causing harm, Xan the witch rescues these children and delivers them to loving families. One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby named Luna moonlight instead of starlight, filling the girl with dangerous, raw magic. Xan raises Luna alongside a wise Swamp Monster and a tiny dragon, eventually sealing the girl’s volatile powers until she reaches adolescence. As Luna’s thirteenth birthday approaches, her magic begins to leak out, coinciding with a young man’s quest to kill the witch and a grieving mother’s desperate search for her stolen daughter.
Younger readers and fantasy enthusiasts read this book to understand how sorrow can be manipulated to control a population and how collective memory shapes history. It appeals to those interested in unconventional family structures and the cost of buried secrets. The reader finishes the story with a clear picture of how individual courage and the refusal to accept state-sponsored fear can dismantle an oppressive social order and replace it with communal hope.
Clear-cut; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Curious Generalist. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2016
- Language
- EN
