A passionate, personal collection of poetry that is well-written and vigorous in its self-exploration and in expressing deep emotions. There is a righteous anger in a lot of the poetry that worked for me.
My only qualm with the book is that I didn't love the illustrations. I'm sure they'll work for others, they just aren't in a style I particularly enjoy.

Absolutely beautiful and genuine. Child of the Moon oozes emotion and infinite bravery.

I received my copy of Child of the Moon from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Although I could see the potential in this text, I was not able to sustain my attention and finish the narrative.

One of the best poetry collections out there, Child of the Moon very smoothly explains the essence of self-love, of finding oneself before finding others who can make us happy, of growing through time and pain, and of appreciating our own beauty--while also, involuntarily, applauding the quick illustrations between some poems.

The poems are nothing cliche, and it's a diverse collection in terms of two-liners, one-liners, and even some prose making it to the pages. Right from the importance of self-love to plucking out the bystanders within ourselves, the poems--intentionally or unintentionally--works as a guide too. It's a refreshing set of rhymes and aesthetics that will make you feel nice by making you feel your own self.

"Not everyone will like you
One day, you find a yellow orchid in your room
But you don't like orchids
A week later, the orchid starts flourishing
But you still don't like orchids
Two weeks later, you notice a golden reflection on its surface
You start disliking the orchid a little less
A month later, you bow to the orchid
For despite your dislike the orchid kept flourishing
And just like the orchid not everyone is going to like you
But as you continue flourishing many will admire you"

I received a digital copy of this via Netgalley but that, in no way, influences my rating and/or opinions about it. Thank you, Jessica Semaan and Andrews McMeel Publishing!

I really, really enjoyed this collection. I related to so many of the poems, and even the ones I didn't, I felt so empathetic. I felt as though I grew close to the author, and it was inspiring. This collection has everything I look for in poetry- emotion, relatability, and realness. It was truly moving and I look forward to more from this author.

Craters
"The closer I got to the moon
I saw its many scars
And I knew it would understand me”
– Jessica Semaan

This poetry collection took my breath away. It was one of the most relatable collections I’ve read. Emotions leaked between the lines and the writing evoked various feelings I prefer to suppress. A few times my eyes glassed over with tears. To relate to someone’s words from across the world is always a gift. It makes me feel less alone. I know someone out there understands me and what I’m going through. Even though our experiences aren’t completely similar, there is still this connection of understanding. Like we are all somehow connected through trauma.

In my home language, Afrikaans, the authors’ surname means moon. Directly translated from Afrikaans to English her name would read ‘Jessica’s Moon’. I thought about this throughout reading the collection. It carried the essence that the author was meant to write this poem collection. I’m not the most spiritual person, but to me this was close to spiritual healing. It shows how vulnerability and loving yourself is important for self growth.

Semaan did a brilliant job of dividing the collection into five parts, each relating to a different phase of the moon. Beautiful illustrations throughout brings the words to life. I liked how the moon was constantly mentioned and seen throughout the collection. It helped keep the moon theme prominent while there were still various underlying themes explored. People from various walks of life will be able to relate to this collection. I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels alone or who is going through a rough time. This collection is here to tell you that you are not alone.
You are a child of the moon.

Jessica Semaan has crafted a touching and raw collection of poetry in Child of the Moon. Drawing on her experiences of living through the Lebanese Civil War, as well as parental abuse and neglect, her journey to healing comes through in her words, making the rest of us think that maybe it is indeed possible to heal.

"behind the grief, the forgiveness
behind the forgiveness, the love
behind the love, more love"

I already forgave and let go of the reason of my broken heart. I am letting joy engulf me and give more love not only to myself but also for the people around me.

Child of the Moon is a very straightforward narrative of pain, grief, loss, shame, trauma and healing. Every poem had me hitting hard. It is so raw and honest that I can relate to almost single entry. Jessica says all the awful truth that all of us tried to forget.

Also, I really liked the illustrations, it added more depth and emotion in the poems.

This is my first read of Jessica Semaan and I'm hoping it will not be my last.

This has been such a deeply moving and relatable collection of poems and prose. I felt connected to her words, having experienced some of what Jessica writes. And, the illustrations were brilliantly magnificent. I highly recommend this book.

I received a digital ARC copy of this book via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this was a very disappointing read for me, from what I read about it I thought it was going to be at least four stars, but No that was not the case.
I couldn't connect or have feelings for most of the "poem" it felt incomplete and rushed; it's like there were no feelings in what she wrote.
I didn't hate the illustrations they were okay not the best, but this is not an "illustrated Poetry collection".

A very straightforward narrative of experiences of pain, loss, oppression, trauma, woven into something beautiful, healing, acceptance, forgiveness, and love!

Child of the Moon is touching, has reached out to me from the author’s perspective of cathartic freedom. Expressing what’s it was, and what will be. With the feeling expressed in the beginnings was overwhelming for me. And what I liked about it is that when you progress reading farther in, there is these feeling that you’d catch. Feelings of empowerment as a person of cultural minority, as a woman, and my personal emotional pieces of baggage too.

I love the voices that say that it is okay to feel emotions, it is okay not to be okay too, it’s is okay to fail, it is okay to be happy, it is okay to be where you are, and as a person who values mental health, these are mantras of positivity. I love the empowering tone it gives off the readers. Not only with mental health but with the systematic oppression happening around, men dictating what is what, which is which, that my way it the only way, Semaan’s isn’t afraid anymore, it’s all written raw and straightforward, damning it all to hell.

Lastly, the illustrations throughout the book were splendid! They are addicting to stare at, the colors and the pen strokes, I adore them. (I am not an art critique but I really love them!) Plus the incorporating of the art with the workpieces of poetry complemented most of them.

An amazing read, my absolute favorite poem being “to have a narcissist parent”. Jessica Semarang definitely took her writing from a deep dark place that took great courage to share with us. Any review wouldn’t give it justice, just buy this book....

so many statements in this are a projection of my own thoughts and anxieties
i fell into this, no, i crumbled.
self doubts are real and hard to live with, especially when others may not understand the struggle
constantly thinking the worst, believing the worst, knowing the worst is happening; even when it's not.
it's all in my head.
but it's real enough, right? i have to fight that, though.
we have to be better for ourselves and others, we have to search far into who we are, under the surface, we have to fight the dark cloud that swarm our heads and hearts

"you do not have to achieve anything for me to love you, i will love you even when you fail."

when this book spoke about parents and being raised, i understood. striving constantly for that motherly love and acceptance, almost becoming fixated on it so you carry it into other areas of your life, searching for that love from someone else, feeling desperate for something you didn't receive as a child that you still want, no, need, as an adult.

i understand the way the mind twists things into being negatives even if they're being told to us as positives.

"in awe of what it takes to be a human"

getting to know my pain instead of seeing it as an enemy, unwrapping it's layers and learning about myself have helped me become more accepting of myself, finding the better parts, seeing that, yes, sometimes broken is beautiful, because broken is only a chance to put pieces together again in a way that is stronger than before, and better understand the lines across the surface, it just shows where i've been

i want to trust what people say.

"trauma robbed me of my potential" or maybe it gave me the doorway to be who i should be, with a deeper knowledge and understanding of how things work, and what others go through, maybe i've been looking at it wrong all along and my trauma is a blessing to being a better person. instead of defining myself by the bad, i need to see it in an obscured way that shows me the good it has caused.

"behind the grief, the forgiveness
behind the forgiveness, the love
behind the love, more love"

i am learning this process, of letting go and moving forward and letting joy in, positivity, love. more love.

"healing is not only about you."

"to heal is to sit in full presence with what aches. once it feels seen, heard, honored, it will retire to the backseat, and only then can you drive."

i needed this. i've been learning before i read this but seeing it from someone else makes it more clear. i can't let my pain control me. or make me someone i'm not, when i can be more.

"it takes one human to make us feel seen, heard, and safe for us to move the mountain in our way"

i found that person last year and they've helped me a lot with getting to the point i'm at today, where i can attempt to be better than i've been and notice when i've been holding myself back, not someone else, not my past.

"the bad news is you can only heal yourself
the good news is you can only heal yourself"

"they took your childhood but you can claim your adulthood"

"don't trust anyone who cannot show their anger, fear, or sadness. if they can't be in the company of their shadow, they won't have company for you when you are in yours."

i don't like this scary thought, i want to believe people are more abstract than that, that just because they can't face their own doesn't mean they won't support you through theirs. i want to give the benefit of the doubt and protect those people who can't handle the darkness even if i attempt to.

"i became a better person only when i saw i was a bad one, too"

i recently wrote something similar to this and agree so fully and love that it's here in front of me, this is so important to realize and admit, to yourself and others. i've hurt people even if i didn't mean to, and i can't deny it just because i didn't intend it or see it, their feelings are valid and i have to own up, that my words sometimes will hurt, that just because i think i'm loving positively, sometimes negatives sneak in. other people's feelings are valid even when i'm the cause of their bad feelings, i can't take that truth or perspective from someone, i can only say you're right and i'm sorry and i'll do better.

"i am the abuser and the victim
[i realize i have become both
trauma is a complex beast
that turns us into who we fear most]"

acceptance of this is the only way to find a way out of the cycle, to end the abuse.

"fuck changing yourself
[i stopped wanting to change myself
instead i began becoming more myself]"


"love is chanting in the background, even when you can only feel the tears hitting your face.
sometimes you just have to close your eyes and listen a little harder."

This is a poetry book consisting mostly of free-verse. The author talks about her own experiences with trauma -about family, romantic relationships, passions, war, race, gender…
It has more of a diary vibe which makes it feel more personal, sincere and raw.

I personally like it when poems are this raw. Some people argue against it -like they do with Rupi Kaur’s poetry- criticizing the lack of rhymes and other aspects they think poetry should have. I like that rawness that doesn not require a certain style. It’s one of the things that i like about poetry in general: that it doesn’t have any boundaries. It is all about how the author chooses to express their feelings and i think Jessica Semaan does a great job doing that while also appealing to the reader.Her poems also stand-up from the others by not refraining from using modern-day references such as tinder, headspace and xanax.

Another thing that i like about this book in general was the illustrations. They went well with the poems and enriched the narrative (even though i couldn’t see them in their original colour because i had the ebook version). My only suggestion would be filling up some of the blank spaces with more illustrations as there were a lot of almost-empty pages due to the shortness of the text.

All in all, i connected with this book in a lot of ways and maybe the fact that i am also from a troubled country made that connection even stronger (representation matters!). But even if you are not a minority or had the issues Semaan talks about in her poems, you can find some valuable lessons in this book.

I feel like, as a POC who has dealt with family trauma throughout her teen years, I should have been able to relate to this more. Though there were sparks of brilliance, they were dulled in places where poems were repetitions of the last 5 poems combined. The message, though, was beautiful - we heal ourselves, and become better people for ourselves, over time. I enjoyed it, but sadly didn't love it.

Child of the Moon by Jessica Semaan

3.75 stars

“You are not a victim. You are closer to God in your pain.
For your pain is the source of your creation. And creation
is divine. Your pain is the source of healing yourself and
others. And healing is divine.”


Poetry is hard to review. It’s personal, introspective, and often times it’s more for the writer than the reader. It’s cathartic and meant to be freeing. Child of the Moon is a process that seems to show that. The beginning is very bitter and angry. I could feel the resentment at the trauma Semaan faced and I was put-off. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t feeling this poetry book because of its bitterness. Then, I kept going and I connected more, especially in the last section—Flower Moon. I believe this is because I am more in the same healing process of the Flower Moon than of the opening—Blood Moon. I had once been bitter and enraged, but now when I think of that person I once was because of the trauma I experienced I want to weep (and shout praise to God for healing me past that brokenness). I am happy I read this because I am big believer in talking about trauma. I believe that the trauma we experience makes us who we truly are down to our core. Vulnerability is so important and I find that we live in a society where everyone wants to be vulnerable, but not actually go past the trauma. Meaning we share our trauma, but not the process of healing. The trauma is ugly enough to compare like our latest Instagram selfies, but God forbid, we compare the ugliest thing we as humans experience—healing. Healing is ugly, but even more beautiful. Because you can’t get to beauty until you’ve faced ugly. Semaan does that with her poetry collection and I respect her for that. I needed a day to ruminate and think about this collection and I like it more and more the further I get away from my first impression. Also, the art in here is colorful and so great.


The problem I have with this collection is the simplicity of the poems. My biggest complain is that the vast majority of the poems are lists. I love lists, but I don’t think it always works in poetry format. Your list could be the realest and truest thing out there (Healing #1 & Healing #2), but that doesn’t make it a poem. It makes it a powerful image that will be pinned on Pinterest. She also has a tendency to write a lot of two-lined poems. It’s all very tumblr and quick. I’m not opposed to this form of expression, but it isn’t really a poem, more of a reflection of a conceptual idea. The only poem I liked that did this style was “Faith”.


Poems I Recommend:
Despair
When you can’t love yourself
When your home is a faraway land (my favorite)
Sitting with the child of the moon
What they called you
You are not a victim
Alone by the creek


“It’s never too late to bloom.”

Whimsical Writing Scale: 3

Art Scale: 5

Plotastic Scale: 3.25

Cover Thoughts: I like the cover a lot, but I’d love it so much more if some of the striking art that’s inside was exhibit on it.

Thank you, Netgalley and Andrews McNeel Publishing, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

After taking half of a Xanax a minute ago, I don't know what to say about Child of the Moon. Semaan's first acknowledgement is to her therapist. That's bold, even if it's sad. How do we end up so broken? How come we have to be traumatized by our parents, friends, partners etc.? And why, oh why, don't we ever get all the answers? Or even if we do get some answers, we still feel broken.

"I visited the darkness and returned with a book of poetry"

Semaan's writing is raw and straightforward. She says all the awful truths I try so hard to forget, to act as if they are not there (even if my own therapist strongly advises me not to).

"Alone in despair
Drenched in sweat
I opened my eyes
I am a burden
I deserve to die
I checked my phone
No one to call
I am a burden
I deserve to crawl"

So why should you read this collection? Maybe because you need to know you are not alone even if it may seem that way. Even if you're desperate and cannot breath. Even if you just want it all to stop... everything to stop. You are not alone.

"Grief #3
Mourn the many selves you have not become
Mourn so you can make space for the self you have always been"

*I thank Jessica Semaan, Andrews McMeel Publishing, and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

"The bad news is you can only heal yourself.
The good news is you can only heal yourself."

Child of the Moon is a poetry collection and a story—a tale of abuse, healing, survival, colonialism, immigration, self-loathing, feminism, pride, and finding everything we need within ourselves (with a little help from the moon, of course).

"Trauma robbed me of my potential.
May all my pain turn into healing so the women who come after me don't have to carry it
and can live their potential."

Semaan's writing style isn't my favorite—far from it, to be honest—but the messages being portrayed in this collection are so powerful, and important, and beautiful. My heart ached for her throughout the entire thing, and I feel grateful to have been allowed this glimpse into the author's life.

Thank you so much to Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is my first time reading the poet. I hope it won’t be my last and I look forward to reading more of her work. I love reading and writing poems that are personal, that look inward or use personal experiences to gain insight into external ones. I really don’t like poems that deal with nature and trees and sunsets and other such shit. Child of the Moon is chock-full of the kind of poems I adore. I really loved the illustrations. They added depth and detail to the words. The poems are beautiful, intense, tender, emotional and completely relatable. I loved the fact the poems are varied in length, some one or two lines up to two or three pages. The poems in the final section, Flower Moon are the longest and a bit deeper than those gone before. They were my favourites. I really enjoyed Beirut 1988, The Mourning, Shame #1, Wall of Shame, Paris 2017, Sitting With The Child Of The Moon, Leila and Nour and Fuck Changing Yourself.

This book is a relatable, emotional, and honest take on trauma and healing. It's her debut collection and I cannot wait to see what she does next.