Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan - review

---

Title: Daughter of the Moon Goddess

Author: Sue Lynn Tan

Genre: YA fantasy / mythological retelling

Pages: 512

My rating: ★★★☆☆

---

It has been a while since I’ve ventured into YA fantasy territory, but ever since hearing about a debut duology coming out inspired by the Chinese legend of Chang’e, the moon goddess, I knew I had to jump back in.

The story follows Xingyin, daughter of Chang’e, who grew up in blissful solitude, alone with her beloved mother and their trusted servant, on the surface of the moon. Unaware that she is being hidden by her mother and her powers suppressed, one day, her aura is detected by the feared and powerful Celestial Emperor after an accidental flare up of her powers. The Emperor had exiled her mother to the moon years before, and has forbidden her for leaving or coming into contact with anyone after Chang’e mistakenly provoked his ire. Xingyin is forced to leave the moon and her mother, so she can remain undetected. Now, alone, afraid and anonymous in the Celestial Kingdom, she vows to free her mother, and reclaim her heritage. This is where her journey begins…

Wow! What an amazing set-up. This book has everything from dragons to a love triangle, with some mind-control mixed in for good measure. I loved watching Xingyin’s journey from frightened servant girl, to fearless woman warrior (though she is totally clueless when it comes to picking up romantic hints).

The story is captivating with characters you want to root for, but there were some major flaws that stopped me from loving it completely. Firstly, it was a tad too long, and dragged a bit in the middle; But worstly, there was just so much over-explaining happening. There was literally zero subtlety throughout the whole story. Every action, thought, or look was explained, mostly unnecessarily, and this made the prose appear really wooden at times, and definitely took away some of the magic of reading.

More than anything, this book made me want to go and read the original legend. We’ve had so many retellings of Greek mythology coming out in the last few years, it’s refreshing to see mythology from other parts of the world being championed.

I’m interested enough that I’ll definitely be reading the second book when it comes out, but not so interested that I’ll ever reread them. But bring me more Chinese mythology-inspired novels ASAP!