Reviews with content warning for Confinement - The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

30 reviews

technicolorxsn's review

adventurous hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I reread this book A LOT as a kid. I fell in love with it instantly. I haven't read it since I was in middle school I don't think, but it really impacted me. It's a good book for weird kids; its very comforting.
Luna's mother walked so Pelafina could run /j

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gemstonejasper's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This is a beautiful fairy tale style story about the power of love over sorrow. It explores themes of family (both found/adopted and biological), love, sorrow, and memory. It especially focuses on the relationship between a mother/grandmother and daughter/granddaughter. I really enjoyed it. I listened to the audiobook while following along in my physical copy. The audiobook is good. I love the voices she does for the characters. I could tell them each apart without paying attention to the "Luna said," "Xan said."

I think this would also be an excellent grandmother/mother/daughter buddy read idea because of the focus it puts on those relationships. I think it would be especially so in families that have one or more adopted members.

I would tell people to consider the content warnings before reading this. It's a middle grade story, so it isn't heavy on gore and violence. But it talks a lot about grief, losing a parent, losing a child, mental illness, kidnapping, confinement, gaslighting, etc. I think these are important themes and topics for kids to learn about (especially in that middle grade range) because if they haven't already, they will experience grief in some form. Just be careful and take care of yourself before anything else.

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caoxtina's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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micaelamariem's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Around my birthday a couple months ago, I went to a used bookstore and picked up a few gems, including this one, which seemed perfect to read around Halloween.

The Girl Who Drank the Moonby Kelly Barnhill is a middle grade fantasy novel about a town that sacrifices a baby each year to the witch in the woods under the belief that she would curse them elsewise. The witch doesn't know why the town is abandoning their babies, but she tries to save them and give them each a loved home. Until one day, she accidentally enmagiks a baby by feeding her moonlight and decides to raise her as her own. Over the novel there are secrets that lead to the discovery of why the town must sacrifice babies and how the story began. The novel actually won a Newberry award!

The author, Kelly Barnhill, is a teacher turned author who loves promoting the arts for children.

I really enjoyed this story for a middle grade novel. There were a few themes that really struck out to me: the danger of sorrow vs hope, the fragility of memory, as well as some motifs of paper and birds and magic.

The worldbuilding of the novel is great, showing a vast landscape for readers to escape into, complete with its own laws and myths and origin stories.

The writing style was a little confusing and a lot whimsical. Half the time I wasn't quite sure what was going on but I enjoyed the ride, reminding me kind of like the show I just watched called Over the Garden Wall.

I loved the characters as well, each one combatting their own fears and sorrows. My favorite character was the Simply Enormous dragon Fyrian who was always childlike and naive, but had blocked out his own trauma which perhaps kept him this way.

Perhaps the main idea of the book is the hope and sacrifices we make for whom we love can combat sorrow. The witch and the girl formed a tightly-bound relationship like a mother and daughter and held hope for each other. The swamp monster and the dragon seemed to also care about each other. The boy from the town found his own love and hope, ready to change the world, as did the madwoman.

I would highly recommend this book to middle grade readers who like whimsical quirky things with deep messages and meanings or who like to make their own inferences in stories.

Overall, this was a four star read for me!

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my_weird_bookish_heart's review

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

faeriefox's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Would round down to 4⭐

This is a reread and was one of my favorite books in elementary school, and now I remember why.

The book is beautifully written, and the prose flows beautifully. It made me feel so many emotions, and the story is very unique and interesting. It's no wonder it won so many awards.

I loved Antain and Glurk's characters especially, and without those specific personalities, the book would have lost so much.

I didn't find most of the other characters to be well-developed, though, which was especially disappointing in Luna's case, since she is the main character. I felt like she was written as too old for her years, and like she didn't have much personality.

Aside from that though, everything was amazing. I especially loved the background on how the world came to be; most books just exist, and I like that this world is similar to our own in that the people within it have stories for how it came to be. It makes it more relatable.

All in all, this was an excellent book, and I'm glad I read it again.

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emma_reading_love's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a fairy tale exploring grief, generational trauma, and coming of age. It’s a bit slow at first, but the payout is great at the end. I closed the book with a sense of beauty and wonder. You’ll like this if enjoy a book with witches, dragons, magical mishaps, and joy mixed in with hard things. My book club loved it. It was very discussable. Note: Even though it’s middle grade, I would recommend HSP readers check the content warnings on StoryGraph.

Content Warnings