The Moon and More

Locations
Call Number: Teen Fiction
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Teen, 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Teen Fiction	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"During her last summer at home before leaving for college, Emaline begins a whirlwind romance with Theo, an assistant documentary filmmaker who is in town to make a movie."-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

mediocre submitted by unknown on July 30, 2013, 2:45pm I've been a Sarah Dessen fan for quite a while, so I was excited to see she was releasing a new book. However, after reading this one I was rather disappointed. The plot and character development were seriously lacking, and the storyline wasn't as enchanting as her previous books. Overall, I found it kind of a boring read. Would recommend reading The Truth About Forever, This Lullaby, or Dreamland instead.

Okay submitted by bluepapaya on July 1, 2014, 8:51pm There are some cute moments, but the plot isn't great

d submitted by kscapellie on July 11, 2020, 9:53am the truth

Beautifully written, but not as satisfying as others by Sarah submitted by clk.9123 on August 21, 2022, 3:13pm I have been describing this as not as good as Along for the Ride and better than What Happened to Goodbye as a reference point.

I'll start with what I was happy about: Emaline as a character. Like most of Dessen's female protagonists, they are very strong & I liked that, I liked that she was no-nonsense. I liked that it was set in Colby and I really liked the few characters from past books that we got a glimpse of. It probably sounds weird, but I liked the rift between Emaline and her biological father. In some ways I can relate to that and I give Emaline major props for being strong.

What I didn't like, for the most part, was Theo. I found him to be pretty annoying. He was a loud character and had a big presence, but for all the wrong reasons. He was so pretentious and obsessed with his own ways that I was continually frustrated throughout the book. I also was disappointed in the Luke setup. I didn't feel like they had been together long enough in the beginning for me to really feel the big disappointment of their breakup, and I felt like things between her and Theo happened so quickly that there was like no recovery period.

The Moon and More was just as much family driven as it was "summer romance" driven. That part was just okay for me I think. Her sisters were annoying and kind of disrespectful, and in some ways her mom was too. I think they took advantage of how responsible Emaline was. The one character who should've been showcased more (besides Morris!) was her grandma- I think she would've been a better supporting character as far as family went.

The end was very realistic. It wasn't exactly a "happily ever after" and ordinarily I really need that in a book- after all you just spent all this time reading it, and don't want to be disappointed. But the end of The Moon and More tied up the end of a journey that Emaline had been on with her family and what she wants from life, or at least college. I really respected Sarah Dessen's choice to while end on a good note, also <spoiler> dissolve the tumultuous relationships Emaline had been battling with over the summer. </spoiler> As a writer she definitely has a knack for winding things down and giving us the perfect end.

It's really hard to describe my feelings overall on this book- Sarah Dessen books are always so poetic and eloquent, and I found that The Moon and More definitely upheld that, but I just did not feel as satisfied as I wanted to be during the book and after I finished it. Still, it was beautifully written, as always, and I did enjoy it for the most part.