On a Blue Moon: The Incredible Journeys (Daughter of Firth Tales) Willow

Willow
Genre: 
New Adult

FANTASY:  As Willow prepares to celebrate a milestone birthday as an adult, she reflects on the treacherous journey she began as a child in a faraway place. Her eventual arrival on Earth started with nature explorer Sam's unplanned trip on a canoe ride that turned into space travel. Or did it? When Sam regains consciousness, the strange environment that surrounds him is beautiful and deadly. Willow and her family assist Sam even though they have few material resources and no social status to share. On the surface, the Blue Moon community seems like a Utopia, but Sam's fresh eyes as an outsider see disturbing signs of corruption. 

“On a Blue Moon” offers profound social commentary packaged as a fanciful environmentalist warning mixed into a fabulist memoir. Threads about various types of predators from sentient trees to vicious bullies, abuse of power by public officials, and exploitation of the disenfranchised blend with nuanced characterizations and brisk pacing. Minor clunkiness in the prologue quickly transitions into an adventure story that examines the many different ways families are created. Factors of gender, age, ethnicity, and social class overlap with various manifestations of xenophobia used as weapons to support tyranny. For all its provocative philosophical considerations, this story is also a fun adventure. Willow, Sam, and their fellow travelers move from one crisis to another, gaining wisdom and solidifying their loyalty to each other as they improvise solutions to every challenge thrown into their path. “On a Blue Moon” is a SciFi supernatural mash-up with emotional and literary depth!

Cardyn Brooks