The long-awaited sophomore book from the writer of An Astonishing Color of After. It was beautifully written, deeply discusses themes that young Asian Americans face, delivers a beautiful retelling of Chang’e and Houyi, and even has a cute rabbit.
Here’s more about An Arrow to the Moon
Hunter Yee has perfect aim with a bow and arrow, but all else in his life veers wrong. He’s sick of being haunted by his family’s past mistakes. The only things keeping him from running away are his little brother, a supernatural wind, and the bewitching girl at his new high school.
Luna Chang dreads the future. Graduation looms ahead, and her parents’ expectations are stifling. When she begins to break the rules, she finds her life upended by the strange new boy in her class, the arrival of unearthly fireflies, and an ominous crack spreading across the town of Fairbridge.
As Hunter and Luna navigate their families’ enmity and secrets, everything around them begins to fall apart. All they can depend on is their love…but time is running out, and fate will have its way.
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My thoughts
The story first starts off like you’re reading Romeo and Juliet: two teenagers from families that hate each other fall in love and want to be together forever despite their parents’ wishes. But the conflict in the story felt less about being from two warring families and more about the romance between Luna and Hunter, the unexplained happenings in the town, and the eventual ending that both these characters were fast approaching.
While this book is marketed as a Romeo and Juliet meets Chinese mythology retelling, it felt less like Romeo and Juliet and more like a story of Chang’e and Houyi. I actually much preferred it being more about the Chinese myth than the Shakespearean play. As much as I love both, Romeo and Juliet is such an overdone trope, especially in YA so I’m glad it seldom showed up throughout the story. However, the book is most definitely a YA romance story more than it was a fantasy story. To be honest, it felt like a YA romance where the magic just made the love between the two main characters even more special. I found myself fawning over their romance, sighing at the little things they did for each other.
The writing here is just as I remember Emily XR Pan writing. It was lyrical, poetic, and lush in description. I couldn’t get enough of her writing and wished that I could read more! Her writing is always done with a great amount of care, making sure that the reader never worries about how something looks, acts, or require extra explanation. It was subtle and injected the bits and pieces of the Chinese mythology into the story. I loved how she treated Hunter and Luna. Their traits as individuals were well described and executed, but their relationship together was tender and sweet making it the kind of couple you want to root for. In many ways, they complemented each other bringing different parts of themselves into their relationship making it much deeper and sweeter than other romantic YA couples I’ve read.
There are also many themes in this book directly related to the experiences of Asian American teenagers. Not only did she discuss the overbearing nature of immigrant parents, but she also touched on the differences between Chinese and Taiwanese culture, the usage of bound feet as a beauty statement, and being slung between two very different worlds with very little navigation. I honestly felt seen and all the things that I felt as a kid growing up in the U.S. and also being the kid of immigrant Asian parents were spot on.
There were so many different narratives in this story. While the bulk of the story derives from Hunter and Luna, you also get the perspectives of their parents, Hunter’s brother Cody, and a mysterious man named Rodney. I loved the way that this was setup because there was a lot going on and all of it is slowly explained as you progress in the story. You see a little bit of Luna and Hunter’s romance, but then you see the difficult dynamics between them and their parents. Then you see how Rodney fits into this whole story and it definitely pulls you in, begging you to continue reading for that ultimate ending.
As much as I loved reading this story, there were a few things that bothered me. First off, the world building. I know that I shouldn’t be trying to criticize a YA fantasy for not having enough world building, but I felt in the dark a lot of the time. There were a lot of strange things happening in the small town that they lived; cracks in the earth, an indescribable funk that permeated the emotions of people in town, a strange stone with mystical powers being hunted down by a gangster, fireflies that kept following the characters, and money just being found randomly. Maybe it’s because of my ignorance and I don’t know enough about Chang’e and Houyi, so I wanted some explanation about that. It was never explained.
The second part were all the things happening to Luna and Hunter’s families. There was a lot of backstory for both of their families; where they came from, the lives they lived before Hunter and Luna came along, their hopes, dreams, and wishes are also very realized here. However, nothing really came from it. I actually loved these perspectives because they gave you such a deeper look at these families and what they’re going through, but the ending really lacked any kind of resolve and leaving you with a lot of unanswered questions. At the same time, I understand why Emily XR Pan did that. Because destiny doesn’t wait for you to resolve everything; sometimes destiny does what it wants to do and the rest takes its cues from that.
But the legend of Chang’e and Houyi ended the way that it did as both Luna and Hunter relive the tale right at the very end. I absolutely loved that part of the story and I didn’t see it coming to that conclusion. I was so bogged down by all the questions I had about everything else that when it finally did happen, it took me by surprise. It was a beautiful ending for a beautiful book.
Simone and Her Books 