Absolutely stunning! I loved how the author managed to bring across real world themes of disability and chronic illness in this fantastic and heartbreaking tale.

The Moth Girl by Heather Kamins is a young adult book set in the 90s featuring a main character with a chronic illness. Anna starts the book on the track team with her best friend. However, one day she finds that her ankles and legs are hurting. There are a few more symptoms that happen. As it turns out, Anna has lepidopsy which causes floating, being attracted to bright lights and some other kind of dangerous systems. This book is about Anna learning to deal with her chronic illness and figure out what her life looks like going forward.

If you are someone who likes quiet books, The Moth Girl might be the book for you. I liked the 90s element somewhat. Anna is easy to empathize with as well. She's in a rough situation and trying to find her way forward. Her friends don't get it. And well, her new friend Kristi only seems interested in her for the disease aspect. I thought this book was okay. It moves so slow. The chapters are all at least 30 pages which is a just a lot. It seemed like this was one of those LESSON type books. Like, Kristi is so one dimensional. As is Smilla, Anna's best friend. Overall, not my cuppa.

I requested a copy of this book after hearing about it on the author's Instagram page. My niece suffers from Juvenile Arthritis (well, she's 20 now no it's probably no longer classified as juvenile) and I was immediately drawn to the premise of The Moth Girl with my niece's condition and experience in mind.

The book follows Anna from her early symptoms of illness to diagnosis, treatment, and the issues that come with those. Anna's illness doesn't begin until she is in her teens, and the story takes place in quite a short time span,. Although the speed she moves from 'healthy to chronically sick with a rapidly developing tally of symptoms and side effects seems at times too fast, the story is told in a way that this rapidity doesn't matter - it's done well and in a way that packs in a lot of information/empathy, which, I imagine, is the main mission behind the book. At first, I was unsure as to whether the magical realism aspect of the story added anything - I was at times wondering if 'keeping it to a real illness' would have been just as effective, but as I read on, I saw real sense in making Anna's illness impossible - it will allow many more readers to connect with her in terms of relating her story to their own conditions, and many of the magical parts make easy metaphors for real conditions and symptoms.
When Anna's illness causes her to float, we can relate to than feeling of 'standing out for unusual behaviour'; when she is given her bulky tether, we can relate this to the bulky equipment of other conditions: a colostomy bag; splints; a walking cane, for example. Anna's self consciousness surrounding this equipment and her attempts to conceal it under her clothes, or desire to leave the house without it are likely to stir recognition in anyone who has an 'attachment'. Likewise, the problems she face among her friends, family, and teachers will all resonate with anyone who battles against something that makes them 'different'. My own niece has experienced many of these issues - being left out; wishing people would talk about it or not talk about, wanting sympathy while simultaneously resenting symapthy, etc. The forays into the hospital visits are also well-portrayed - I particularly noted the scenes with the Trainee doctor who made Anna feel uncomfortable, compared with other doctors whom she trusted and liked. In the hospital scenes I again felt the magical element of Anna's illness serves very well - the processes and procedures, the tests and the shuffle through different medications as the doctors try to manage the disease, combined with the patient's and parents' bewilderment, frustration, uncertainty and anger must seem as alien to any young patient as if they were an imaginable magic impossibility. Equally useful were the sections where Anna ignored her dietary advice in her desire to 'fit in'.
I would highly recommend this book for any young person newly-diagnosed with or already living with a chronice illness. Even as an adult with a chronic illness (I have coeliac disease, diagnosed late) I found much of this book very relatable to my own experience and feelings as I've had to adapt my lifestyle to my diet restriction and deal with other people's response to my condition. I await my niece's response to it with great interest.

March is just the gift that keeps giving with amazing disability reads! Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for sending this book my way. It kept me on the edge of my seat and made me think deeply about chronic illness. I wonder what it would’ve been like to read this as a teen. I would have really appreciated it when I was first sick. I’m so glad that this books exists for a new generation of teens!⁣⁣

Anna is a regular teenaged girl who runs track and goes to parties with her best friend. But one day at track practice, Anna falls unconscious - but instead of falling down, she falls up, defying gravity. In another book, this would be the beginning of a classic superhero plot. Instead, THE MOTH GIRL follows Anna as she’s diagnosed with lepidopsy: a rare illness that causes symptoms reminiscent of moths: floating, attraction to light, a craving for sugar, and for an unlucky few, more dangerous physical manifestations.⁣⁣

Lepidopsy may be a magical illness, but THE MOTH GIRL is based solidly on the real experience of chronic illness (the author herself has Lupus). It shows one rather average girl’s journey through hospitals, support groups, and her own body which overnight has become unfamiliar. ⁣I think the author has managed to portray the complicated cycle of chronic illness through a unique fantasy lens.⁣

Fantasy has been used to discuss love, war, and many more challenging subjects, but at last it’s being used as a lens to examine what it means to be sick in our society. I can’t wait to see the discussions that come out of reading this book. It made me think long and hard about my own experience with chronic illness and left me with many questions to ponder. ⁣

At times I wanted a little more detail on the magical world of THE MOTH GIRL. It feels a bit unmoored from time and place. Anna loves her Walkman and uses payphones, but at least in the advanced copy I read, all the bands she’s obsessed with are made up. I wish that the author had used real bands to give it a distinctly real setting OR leaned into the magic and expanded on the origins of lepidopsy and the other magical illnesses depicted. ⁣

THE MOTH GIRL is slow and thoughtful. It’s a story about friendship and self-discovery. There’s no romance, but Anna goes on a journey to find her voice, her identity, and what really matters to her. True friendship is revealed and tested. Overall, THE MOTH GIRL was at times maddening and beautiful. I wanted to shake Anna and I wanted to hug her for a thousand years. I treasure this book and I am so, so thankful it exists. Please don’t miss out on this book!

A wonderful and much-needed addition to YA literature with chronic illness representation, Kamins' debut may be fabulist, but the tale of the main character's journey to diagnosis and through treatment resonates with veracity.