*slight spoilers*
So theoretically, Blood and Moonlight book should’ve been great. Murder mystery, fantasy, romance…what’s not to love? And it did meet all that – the romance was cute, and the murder mystery was pretty good. It just fell a little flat.
Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty
Published by: Farrar, Straus and Giroux on June 28th, 2022
Genres: fantasy, romance, mystery
Age rating: young adult – 13+
Length: 448 pages (hardcover)
Final Verdict: recommended
Rising above the city of Collis is the holy Sanctum. And watching over its spires is Catrin, an orphan girl with unique skills—for she alone can spot the building’s flaws in construction before they turn deadly.
But when Catrin witnesses a murderer escaping the scene of his crime, she’s pulled into the web of a dangerous man who will definitely strike again. Assigned to capture the culprit is the mysterious, brilliant, and enigmatic Simon, whose insights into the mind of a killer are frighteningly accurate.
As the grisly crimes continue, Catrin finds herself caught between murderer and detective while hiding her own secret—a supernatural sight granted by the moon, destined to make her an outcast, and the only thing that might save her and those she loves from becoming the next victims…
Trigger & Content Warnings
Death, blood, violence, killing, mental illness, schizophrenia, murder, gore, grief, rape (implied), suicide, drug abuse
SUMMARY ✨
Blood and Moonlight follows a badass girl named Catrin (or ‘Cat’), who was hired by Magister Thomas to climb all over the Sanctum, checking for flaws that could turn deadly. I honestly loved her. She had motivations that made sense, and she had her weaknesses. My main issue was that after she finds out that she has magic, she’s WAYYY more powerful than the average Selanae. Which is weird, considering her…unique circumstances (she has one magic parent and the other is non-magical). It just kind of felt like she was ‘not like the other girls’ in that way. If anything, her magic should be weaker than normal, and I never felt like it was fully explained why her magic is stronger. I’ll talk a little more about the magic system and world a little later on.
Her magic was revealed by accident: while climbing over the Sanctum at night, she accidentally pricks her finger, which exposes her blood to moonlight (how the Selenae magic is ‘enabled’, I guess?). Due to her overwhelming senses, she collapses, her safety rope (which she despises) saving her. While hanging there, she hears a scream and feels pain in her torso. Pain that later leaves bruises. She also sees a man in the shadows.
After she finally manages to climb back up, she goes to investigate the scream and discovers a body. One with stab wounds in the same pattern as the bruises on her torso. A man named Simon (our other protagonist) investigates the murder.
THE WORLD ✨🪄
So the world and magic system are rather complicated. In this world, they ‘worship’ the sun, but also not really? They know that the sun isn’t really a god and that something created it, but it’s written with a capital S and they create places of worship based on it, like the Sanctum, a church-like building that’s been in construction for…I’m not really sure how long, to be honest. There’s a lot of information given in a small-ish space of time, and a lot tends to slip through the cracks. Anyway, people generally follow the sun; they have five prayers, and funerals are held at sunset (or was it sunrise? I think it was sunset) to allow the soul to follow the sun into heaven.
Then you have the Selanae, people who use the magic of the moon. It enhances their abilities, making them see, hear, taste, smell and feel things others don’t. They believe in blood purity until something happens to make them think otherwise (but they won’t admit it). They’re scored and feared by the ‘Hadrians’, which is what they call non-magical people. Choosing to live alone in their own little community, they support each other and provide medical services to the Hadrians. Although they dislike each other, the Selanae need the non-magic people to learn medicine, since the Selanae are dying out.
I’m saying this after finishing this book and reading part of the second one (Silence and Shadow) Much of the magic system is kept annoyingly vague throughout the book, and I wanted to understand MORE of the magic system. I needed more information. Cat (the protagonist) kind of knows what’s going on, but I never felt like she investigated her magic that much. Most of the magic is explained closer to the end of the book and in the first bit of the second book.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ──
PLOT & MYSTERY ✨
I loved the story overall: the plot was engaging and I never wanted to put the book down. The resolution was pretty satisfying, I just felt a little lost part of the time 😦 The first 50-ish percent of the book was great, but the more I got into the mystery investigation, the more confused I got – especially after reaching one chapter where like 70% of the information about the killer was revealed. I wish they would’ve slowly pieced everything together, rather than having all of that information in one chapter. The mystery conclusion was a little bit of a letdown, but the twists and confusion along the story made sense. But yeah: a slower piecing together of the information and a better conclusion would’ve made the story much more enjoyable.
WRITING ✨✍️
Sometimes the phrasing was a little weird I had to reread certain segments of the story to understand what the characters were getting at. Those kind of jolted me out of the book, which was a shame since it was overall really good. The writing overall was captivating, but the infodumps and sometimes confusing language got to me.
THE CHARACTERS✨
The characters all had their own motivations and personalities, which I enjoyed. Cat did kind of give off ‘chosen one’ vibes, like I already mentioned. Many – if not all – of the characters are smitten with her. She was stubborn, though, which I liked. She was really interesting to read about. I felt pity for Simon, so I think the author handled that part of him well. My favourite character was Juliette; her struggles and story were so compelling. Many of the side characters, however, were a little flat and were made to fulfil a couple of roles. It wasn’t too noticeable while reading, though.
ROMANCE✨💘
I never really understood why Simon and Cat were together, or why they found each other all that attractive. They fell fast and hard, with both trying to deny their feelings. I don’t know. The romance “makes sense” but it also doesn’t, when you try and think about it logically. But when you consider how much time they spent together, it makes sense that they’d fall in love. I didn’t love or hate this part of the story, but they were definitely cute together.
OTHER✨
– Erin Beaty explores themes of mental illness, which I liked
– a pretty good mix of how the magic system impacts the religious aspect of the book, and the other way around. It was just a little weird how the people knew the sun wasn’t a god, but didn’t know what exactly they were worshipping. It was good, though.
– the ending overall was really good and gave a bittersweet vibe. The way the story ends makes sense (I won’t say why exactly, but you’ll see what I mean.) It could be read as a standalone, but so far I’d say you should read the sequel 🙂
– the main thing that drew me to this series was the cover (this one and the sequel, actually). Props to the cover artist; it’s gorgeous!
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