The Girl Who Chased the Moon

The Girl Who Chased the Moon was like a light & fluffy piece of pie, which when quickly devoured, makes you desperate for just one more bite. With many likeable, yet complex characters and a small town atmosphere that will make you feel right at home, there are many reasons to be utterly charmed by this novel.

Although the novel is told through the eyes of multiple characters, you spend the most time with both Emily and Julia. Teenage Emily, finds herself the newest attraction in Mullaby but for all the wrong reasons, as she quickly learns she isn't welcomed. Julia has given herself a 6 month plan to get out of Mullaby, as it hasn't felt like home in a long time. Drawn together by their shared loneliness, Emily and Julia soon form an show more unlikely friendship that may just heal them both.

I found it very easy to relate to both Emily and Julia, even though each one of them is at a very different place in her life. Emily is a confident and curious young women, who always sees the good in people. She just wants to make new friends, move forward and hopes that soon Mullaby will feel like home. Julia, on the other hand, is someone so scared by her past, she rarely lets anyone in. Although having once been young and all alone, she refuses to let Emily suffer and decides to help her out anyway she can.

I was really intrigued by the three main male characters, Sawyer, Win & Grandpa Vance. The trio certainly help to deepen Emily and Julia's characters but are also quite integral to the town's history as well. You also get to see each man's POV, which really helps add more complexity to each one of them and helps fill in other supporting character's back stories.

While the plot itself might not be all that original, its the magical & paranormal undertones sprinkled throughout the story that gives the novel its own fresh and rather unique feel. It's also why I felt the novel was very well paced, it has a nice fluidity making it hard to put down.

Though others may find certain plot threads to be rather predictable or slightly disappointing, I was far to enchanted by Sarah Addison Allen's writing to be bothered by this. I look forward to reading more novels by her in the future.

An adult novel, that's sure to appeal to young adults, I found The Girl Who Chased the Moon to be a refreshing look at small town life, with romance, mystery and a touch of magic. show less

I just finished this book and again I'm deeply in love with Sarah's world. Her version of Mullaby is just charming. She makes passion, food, first loves and life simply beautiful, I wished the book was longer, I wanted to see how Julia and Sawyer will react when their "Blue-Eyed-Girl" arrived following the smell of her mother's cakes. Win and Emily's story was truly a fairy tale. I wished I had a changing wallpaper according to my mood, my room would have changed daily if not per hour! I loved Vance a lot, he is the cutest giant ever. Sarah knows how to create lovable character, memorable stories and hot leading men.

Absolutely enchanting. Part chick lit, part fairy tale, wholly unexpected, I enjoyed every line and finished in a day (and a work day, at that). There were some random details that made no sense - what was the purpose of the wallpaper? - and the ending was slightly too twee for my taste, but Sarah Addison Allen has a magical way with words. I love how she describes an argument as bing like 'words strung in the air like a garland', and the way one character remembers his late wife as the colour green and the scent of new paper. Poetical and nonsensical, maybe, but I love such vivid and thoughtful imagery.

The story is deceptively simple, with an odd supernatural twist thrown in, but like Emily, I felt I had to find out all the answers. show more After the death of her mother, a young girl goes to stay with her grandfather in the mystical town of Mullaby, North Carolina. Like every small community, everybody knows everybody else's business in Mullaby, and the murky secrets of the past instantly link Emily to her next door neighbour, Julia, and draw her with magnetic force to Win Coffey, the enigmatic young son of Mullaby's wealthiest family.

I felt a personal connection with Emily's circumstances - bar the wallpaper - and her frustration at fighting a conspiracy of silence, which is perhaps what initially captured my imagination, but I also loved the lyrical narrative and drooled over the mouthwatering cakes that Julia bakes (I think I must have Sawyer's 'sweet sense' also!)

Delicious. show less

The Girl Who Chased the Moon is a fast, delightful read with so many of my favorite things. First, it takes place in the South, a great place to start. Second, the characters are well developed and fully fleshed out. And third, Sarah Addison Allen is a marvelous writer who paints beautiful word pictures.

Emily Benedict comes to Mullaby, North Carolina, to live with her grandfather; a man she didn’t know existed until her mother died. In Mullaby, Emily discovers there are many secrets involving her mother, secrets making it appear that her mother was not the same person that Emily knew.

What follows is an engaging read that kept me turning pages long into the night. I’m not generally a fast reader, but I could not put this book down. show more I just had to keep reading to find out the secrets involving Emily’s mother and some of the rather magical things that go on in Mullaby. I highly recommend this book to those who love Southern fiction with quite a bit of magic thrown in. show less

I’m a newbie to Sarah Addison Allen’s work, but for the most part, her books strike me as prose that depicts ordinary life with a twist of the fantastical and a generally happy ending – perfect for a quick “in between” read. I’ve discovered that chick lit fills an interesting void in the literary community that I hadn’t realized existed, the “in-betweener.”

Reading and discovering a new favorite book (NFB) is emotionally overwhelming and when you finish said NFB, it’s hard to pick up anything new because you’re not sure it will live up to the awesomeness that you just experienced with your NFB. One needs a palate cleanser – something that you know won’t live up to the ridiculously high standard set by the NFB, show more but still has a solid plot and decent characters. Enter the “in between” chick lit novel that lets you come down easy from the NFB high and back into the real world before you dive into the quest for the next NFB.

That being said, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, is a solid read with an intriguing plot and characters and is downright adorable in the most realistic way possible. The characters are flawed and the setting is ordinary in the best possible way. It’s hard to describe fully, but Sarah Addison Allen seems to have perfected the art of making the ordinary extraordinary – of telling a story that could be anyone’s story but has magnificent details that make it unique. The ability to transform our “ordinary daily life” into something spectacular in a natural way is an incredibly difficult thing to do. Interesting things happen to regular people (who may not be altogether “normal”) and Sarah Addison Allen crafts her stories around those moments, the ones that seem straightforward, but moments when our decisions shape our lives for years to come. And that’s how the ordinary becomes magnificently, extraordinarily ordinary and relatable. show less

This review was originally published on my blog: The Reading Fever

I discovered Sarah Addison Allen shortly after her second book was published, back in 2008. I had just finished reading Garden Spells, and dove right into The Sugar Queen. It was love at first read. So when The Girl Who Chased the Moon came out, it was a no-brainer: I HAD to read it! And then--as often happens--life got in the way, and I never got around to reading it...until just recently.

I picked up a copy at my local library, holding it close on the way home, and dashed inside to start reading. I read that entire night, and into the morning. This book did not disappoint.

What I like most about Sarah Addison Allen's novels, is that they seem to have just the right amount show more of magic. No matter what she writes about, it never seems like too much or too little...which is weird, since I'm the Fantasy-lover.

Overall, The Girl Who Chased the Moon was a story about love, and all its complexities. Allen did such a wonderful job writing emotions into this book, that at times I really felt the myself. I was intrigued, and wanted to know more and more about the characters. I think she did an especially fantastic job writing Emily's grandpa. Awkward, unsure of living with a teenager, maybe a little crazy; he was perfect. And the town! *sigh* I ♥ small towns.

I liked both stories that were presented in this book: Emily's, and Julia's. Two different people, from different generations, their lives entwine just enough that they are both set down a different path than they had been on. Each comes to learn more about themselves, their past, and their future in the strange town of Mullaby, North Carolina.

Emily was a well-written character, although I think it did take her a bit too long to understand exactly what was going on. She isn't your typical "oh-no-I-have-to-live-with-my-crockety-old-grandpa" teenager, which I appreciate. She has a smart mind, and a sense of respect. But although the book was mainly about her, I found that Julia's character (and story) ended up being what I was most interested in. It took me less than half the book to realize what the big mystery was, and from then on, Julia's story was much more entertaining. Maybe it's my age. show less

After her mother dies, Emily Benedict moves to Mullaby, NC to live with her grandfather and hopes to find answers to some questions, like “Why did her mother leave and vow not to return?” and “Why didn’t she ever talk about her life in Mullaby?” When Emily meets her grandfather, a reclusive, real-life giant (he’s eight feet tall) and moves in with him, she finds more mysteries, like the wallpaper in her room that changes with her mood and the mysterious Mullaby Lights that appear in the woods behind the house on moonlit nights.

Although the description of the book sounds like it’s leans toward the gothic, it’s really the complete opposite. Allen has created a wonderful fairy tale, complete with two love stories, a gentle show more giant, and a hero whose weakness is cake. I loved this book for it’s whimsy and gentleness, as well as for the growth of the characters. Sarah Addison Allen is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. show less