Hello! I’m back with another compiled blog post for standalone reviews. I’ve been a fan of Anna-Marie McLemore ever since the first book I had read of theirs, Wild Beauty. Can’t wait to share with you what I think about three of their standalone novels!
Navigate through this post with the titles below:
Wild Beauty | Dark and Deepest Red | When the Moon Was Ours
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Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore
Standalone
Published October 3rd 2017 by Feiwel Friends
Age Range: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Romance
Representation: LGBT
Rating:
Synopsis:
For nearly a century, the Nomeolvides women have tended the grounds of La Pradera, the lush estate gardens that enchant guests from around the world. They’ve also hidden a tragic legacy: if they fall in love too deeply, their lovers vanish. But then, after generations of vanishings, a strange boy appears in the gardens.
The boy is a mystery to Estrella, the Nomeolvides girl who finds him, and to her family, but he’s even more a mystery to himself; he knows nothing more about who he is or where he came from than his first name. As Estrella tries to help Fel piece together his unknown past, La Pradera leads them to secrets as dangerous as they are magical in this stunning exploration of love, loss, and family.
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Wild Beauty wasn’t like anything I’ve read before. The way magic worked hand-in-hand with flowers, the land which the story is built upon, and the connection the women had with the land were beautiful and magical. Anna-Marie McLemore’s writing prose is flowery and whimsical, but never hard to read. The whole time I was reading Wild Beauty, I kept imagining it to be a huge, gorgeous garden with perfectly blooming flowers, huge lakes, and cozy houses. I loved that setting so much.
For generations, the Nomeolvides women lived on the grounds of La Pradera, a majestic garden. Without fail, the women witnessed their lovers either leaving the place or vanishing into thin air. The result was always the same–the women never saw them again. One day, a strange boy appeared out of nowhere. Estrella is determined to help this mysterious boy retrieve all his forgotten memories. He doesn’t know who he is, where he came from, or how he appeared La Pradera.
❝ Even in its first faint traces, love could alter a landscape. It wrote unimagined stories and made the most beautiful, forbidding places.❞
Being the only ones around the same age, Estrella shared a fierce loyalty with her four cousins. Each of them has a unique personality. Azalea is a spikier character, Gloria is the leader, Calla is the gentler one, and Dalia is the thinker. While Estrella’s an enjoyable character to read about, I couldn’t connect with her. Unveiling Fel’s enigmatic background was exciting. Since nobody knew about him, all the Nomeolvides women just assumed he was a past lover who came back from vanishing, that he was their second chance.
The romance was a slow burn. With how the book started, it wouldn’t have been realistic if there was an instant love situation. The couple had the time to develop their friendship into something more. It wasn’t too slow and it wasn’t too rushed.
Wild Beauty was simply gorgeous inside and out. I felt like I was reading a whole new fairytale. Anna-Marie McLemore portrayed gender fluidity and the different types of love throughout the book. Wild Beauty took magical realism to a whole other level, and I’m in for it.
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The next review is for Dark and Deepest Red, another standalone!
Navigate through this post with the titles below:
Wild Beauty | Dark and Deepest Red | When the Moon Was Ours
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Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore
Standalone
Published January 14th 2020 by Feiwel & Friends
Age Range: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Romance, Retelling
Representation: LGBT (Trans), Romani and Latina heritage
Rating:
Synopsis:
Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves.
Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.
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trigger and content warnings:
- Antiziganism, including the g slur; Antisemitism recounted; Queermisia & transmisia; Persecution for witchcraft and witch trials; Death of grandparents recounted; Near-drowning incident, on-page; Nightmares; Attempted execution; Possession and exorcisms discussed; Blood depiction & minor body horror
trigger and content warnings:
- Antiziganism, including the g slur; Antisemitism recounted; Queermisia & transmisia; Persecution for witchcraft and witch trials; Death of grandparents recounted; Near-drowning incident, on-page; Nightmares; Attempted execution; Possession and exorcisms discussed; Blood depiction & minor body horror
Since I am unfamiliar with The Red Shoes fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen, I had no idea what to expect from this retelling. On top of that, Dark and Deepest Red is inspired by an actual historical event called The Dancing Plague in 1518. Anna-Marie McLemore has beautiful, lush prose, creating a vivid picture of the settings. The interwoven timelines complicated everything and showed how the past would influence the future.
Dark and Deepest Red‘s setting was perfect. Strasbourg is a mysterious town. Hidden beneath the beautiful side lurked the ugliness. Witchcraft and the fear of it played a role in the plot. If someone was a little different, seemed magical, or miraculous things conveniently happened around them, they were suspected to be a witch. This led to issues including xenophobia and racism.
She has a will and a heart as shining and deep as iron gall ink.
Even though I liked the different elements of Dark and Deepest Red and Anna-Marie McLemore’s writing, I had a difficult time getting absorbed into the story. Some parts were too slow for me. Despite that, the overarching tale of incessant and uncontrollable dancing captured my attention. Emil, Rosella, and Lala were good characters. Each of them was struggling in their own ways in terms of identity. Regretfully, I didn’t feel particularly attached to them. The transition between each chapter was a little too quick. Before I could immerse myself in a certain’s perspective or mindset, it’s off to the next one.
Don’t be deterred from reading Dark and Deepest Red. I’ve never read a book that was inspired by The Dancing Plague or the Red Shoes fairytale before. It goes the same for the Romani culture as well. Plus, Anna-Marie McLemore’s books are always diverse and full of representation.
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The next review is for When the Moon Was Ours, another standalone!
Navigate through this post with the titles below:
Wild Beauty | Dark and Deepest Red | When the Moon Was Ours
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When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
Standalone
Published October 4th 2016 by Thomas Dunne Books
Age Range: Young Adult
Genre: Magical Realism, Romance
Representation: Trans MC, POC (Latinx, Pakistani)
Rating:
Synopsis:
To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town. But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.
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trigger and content warnings:
- transphobia, attempted suicide, physical assault, child abuse
trigger and content warnings:
- transphobia, attempted suicide, physical assault, child abuse
When the Moon Was Ours is about being truthful to oneself and the people around, hiding and fearing the worst, not living one’s truth, and secrets waiting to burst from within oneself.
Initially, I thought it was hard to relate to the characters because of the writing style. Since the book is magical realism, the prose made the story feel distant and out of reach. However, as the story progresses into their struggles and despite the flowery writing style, it was easy to empathize with the characters’ difficulties. The two main characters love each other. That was obvious. I wished the situation would let them love fearlessly and openly too.
“She wanted you to have the life you wanted,” Aracely said. “So figure out what kind of life you want.”
Though Miel has a unique ability, she has no idea of its origin. Discovering the underlying mystery of her magic roses was fun. I wanted more exploration of its properties though. Sam was sweet the whole time. I want a boy who would hang moons for me around my house too. Their interactions were adorable and heart-warming. Individually, they have fears and guilts to overcome by themselves.
The Bonner girls were a suspicious bunch. Throughout the book, I could never decipher what their motives were. What we know is that they want the roses that grow on Miel’s skin. On contrary, a side character I really liked was Aracely. Alongside the Bonner girls and Miel, Aracely was labeled as a witch because she could remove lovesickness from a person. She’s a mystery too. There wasn’t much to know about her at first except that she took in Miel the day they found her in that rusted water tower.
He was a world unmapped, a planet of valleys and vapour seas no one but he had a right to name. If he let her, she would learn the bays and oceans of him. She would know him as well as he knew the maria in the moon atlases.
Honestly, magical realism can be tough for me to absorb and relate to sometimes. However, Anna-Marie McLemore kept me entertained throughout the entire story. Somehow, I would always become invested in the characters’ happiness and life, and it was the same with When the Moon Was Ours. They always write endearing and lovable characters with scars and secrets.
That’s the end of my reviews for Anna-Marie McLemore’s standalone novels!
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