Unlike most lands feeling the spread of civilisation, the
woods here are creeping closer to houses and farms each
day. Beings in the woods, which seem enticing to children,
become malevolent, and young women walk into the wood and
never return.
A CREATURE OF MOONLIGHT by Rebecca Hahn introduces us to
Marni, who grows flowers with her grandfather, and whose
friend Annel has vanished among the trees. Annel's relatives
are suspicious that Marni was involved. A small weed called
dragon flowers keeps appearing in her garden. In folklore,
this weed is linked to lost girls, fatherless babes and
heartless dragons. She doesn't feel part of the village. She
doesn't like the landholders who come to buy flowers. She's
got royal blood but no title. Where does she belong?
When her grandfather dies, and the wood folks try to call
her to them, Marni goes at last to the castle and asks for
shelter. She secretly hopes to kill the king who was
responsible for her mother's death years ago. The people
link the encroaching trees to the presence of a real dragon,
or a curse, and some consider Marni could be either one.
I enjoyed how the locations in A CREATURE OF MOONLIGHT are
thoroughly described, with contrasts between the woodland
glades, the hardscrabble gardening, and the palace luxury.
People behave differently too. Marni has a lot to learn, and
that includes magic. All she knows is gardening, and the
persistent dragon flower has suddenly sprouted in the castle
flowerbeds....
I like the gradual building up of tension and superstition,
turning to action by the fearful populace before Marni takes
action to save her life. Could people be dragons in another
form? Are forests the only danger? What happens to the lost
girls? Only when Marni is brave enough to face her fears and
her own nature can we see the answers. What, then, will she
really want?
Rebecca Hahn's deftly woven imagined land and legend is a
subtle read rather than a swift-moving one, with a theme of
self-discovery. A CREATURE OF MOONLIGHT is a lovely and
thoughtful read, which should lure any young adult and many
adult fantasy lovers into the depths of the book.
As the only heir to the throne, Marni should have been
surrounded by wealth and privilege, not living in exile—but
now the time has come when she must choose between claiming
her birthright as princess of a realm whose king wants her
dead, and life with the father she has never known: a wild
dragon who is sending his magical woods to capture her.
Fans of Bitterblue and Seraphina will be captured by a
Creature of Moonlight, with its richly layered storytelling
and the powerful choices its strong heroine must make.
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