Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to the free advanced copy of this book to read.

After reading an Astonishing Color of After I had to get my hands on this book. It is equally beautiful and the author’s lyrical writing style brings the story to life.

I really enjoyed Pan's first book so I immediately put this on my TBR when it came out. I will say I'm not a huge fan of Romeo and Juliet retellings or the original work but I wanted to give this a try because I usually enjoy anything that has Magical Realism. I ended up thinking this was an average read. I just can't relate to high school aged characters anymore (which I get, this is geared towards YA readers). I did love the Chinese mythology aspect of this story and ended up being more interested in the source content than this story. I did also LOVED the character of Cody---what a precious little baby! The ending was a bit cringy but it reflected it's source material.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a DNF for me... I went back a couple times but just couldn't get started. Neither character really got me interested and I thought the timeline slowed it even more.

I liked this one, but I don’t think it was quite what was promised? The book was marketed as Romeo and Juliet with Chinese magical realism, and while I certainly enjoyed it, I think it was more of a lyrical middle grade/YA story. I loved, as a bookseller, that I could press it into the hands of a slightly wider age range, but the story felt very, very familiar (and not just as a retelling). I will continue to read this author, without question, I just wished for more from this title.

I find it basically impossible to resist new YA fantasies and lately I have been reading lots of mythology books so when I saw that this is a YA Fantasy based on Chinese mythology WITH ROMEO AND JULIET... well, there was no way that I was not reading this.

The writing is so absolutely gorgeous and so easy to read. I was sucked right into the pages and didn't want to put it down.

The chapters are really short and quick to read which makes you feel like you are just flying through the book. Each chapter is told from the POV of a certain character and there are lots of characters to meet and learn about in the beginning which can be a tad confusing. Stick with it though because it all comes good in the end.

It's all really nicely paced with lots to keep the reader interested.

If you are looking for a new, modern retelling and you love YA Fantasy and mythology then you are going to want to add this book to your tbr!

This book was super enjoyable to read, I loved the split perspectives. The characters were well developed and fun to read about. I will definitely recommend this to my book club.

Overall

I have been waiting for Emily X.R. Pan’s next book since I read the last word in The Astonishing Color of After. I absolutely loved that book, and couldn’t wait for her to write another! So you know I jumped on this one right away. Romeo and Juliet meets Chinese mythology? Um, YES. Sign me up!

An Arrow to the Moon combines Romeo and Juliet with Chinese mythology and Pan’s utterly gorgeous writing style. It’s a book about sweet love, magical realism, sibling bonds, and the ways family secrets hurt everyone.

I ended up having very mixed feelings about this book. I really enjoyed the first 80% of the book and was absolutely hooked. Pan’s gorgeous writing style is everything I wanted, and the romance, while not what I had expected, was adorable. Unfortunately, the ending was extremely sudden and wrapped absolutely nothing up. I was very confused and disappointed that many of these characters I had journeyed with throughout this book had no resolutions to their stories!

My Thoughts

- If you’ve never read an Emily X.R. Pan book, you are in for a treat, because her writing is very flowy and gorgeous, invoking an atmosphere that perfectly suits a myth or a tale. Not gonna lie, this writing style is what initially endeared me to her writing. It’s very emotive and captures the complexities of being human in a vivid way. But it also paints such a wonderful picture of the scenery. In a book like An Arrow to the Moon, where it’s filled with magical realism, this really brought the story to life for me! I could practically see the fireflies (never mind that I love fireflies in general!).

- If you’re expecting a dramatic, angsty romance, you’re bound to be disappointed. What we get instead is a super cute romance that I enjoyed just as much! When I first heard Romeo and Juliet, I thought for sure this would be ill-fated lovers filled with drama and angst. That’s not the case. In fact, the reasoning behind the “family feud” is an extremely weak one that didn’t make a ton of sense to me and felt extremely contrived. It isn’t just that their families forbid it, though. Luna and Hunter are very different people from very different backgrounds, and that sometimes comes out in their interactions and their life goals, which can make any relationship challenging.

Despite not being quite what I expected, I did enjoy the romance between Luna and Hunter. It’s super sweet, filled with lots of support and banter. It’s also rather insta-lovey, but it makes sense in the context of the mythology it’s based on (which is Chang’e and Hou Yi). If you’re a fan of sweet romance, this book will like be perfect for you!

- An Arrow to the Moon is about so much more than romance. It delves into some rather difficult topics, particularly around stereotypes and families. Luna and Hunter couldn’t come from more different backgrounds. Luna herself is a stereotype. She’s a straight-A student drowning under the weight of her parents’ expectations and the future they’ve dreamed up for her, even though it’s not necessarily one she wants. She just doesn’t know how to tell them, because she loves her parents and just wants to make them proud.

Hunter, on the other hand, is the black sheep of the family. Nothing he does seems to be good enough for his parents, who seem ready to be rid of him. Hunter would leave . . . if it weren’t for his little brother, who is every bit the “good child” and whose sensitive nature makes Hunter concerned about leaving him alone in a world that can be cruel. Hunter’s family is poor, and Luna’s is wealthy. Both have deep, dark secrets, though. Secrets that threaten to tear the families apart.

- There is a lot going on in this book beyond just ill-fated lovers. There’s also mysterious relics, family secrets, and characters trying to find their place in a world they don’t feel they belong to. I went in expecting some drama between families and lots of angsty love, so I wasn’t expecting there to be so much going on! Lots of action and secrets and personal drama. Even though this technically ends as a fantasy, the beginning feels very contemporary, with a spice of magic realism mixed in for good measure. There’s a lot of soul-searching and deciding the type of person they want to be.

I wish the story had given a little bit more background on some of these characters, because there are hints at larger plots and a larger story buried in here. However, it never quite comes to fruition (which makes sense when considering that these subplots fall by the wayside and never complete in general). Still, I found myself so invested in those juicy little dramatic tidbits that I wanted more of it alongside the main story.

Sticking Points

- The book sort of just . . . ends. With the majority of the plot left unresolved, which was kind of frustrating. It would be one thing if the story were just told from Luna and Hunter’s perspectives, because their story wraps up just fine. It isn’t, however. There are at least four other points of view from other characters in the story. There’s a whole grandiose plot outside the romance that’s part family drama, part family secret, which I thought was interesting and wanted to know more about. However, it kind of just falls by the wayside in the end and nothing about it is actually concluded. I still have so many questions!

This book was okay. Maybe it was a case of this book being perfect for someone else, but it just didn’t manage to capture me in the way I thought it would. I had high hopes for this book, but ultimately, I didn’t find myself wanting to cancel all my plans so I could sit there and read it, and it never fully got to where I wanted it to go.

An Arrow to the Moon is a quick read and inventive retelling of Romeo and Juliet, but with the addition of Taiwanese mythology in the form of the story of Chang’e and Houyi. Take the classic Shakespeare story and add in some magic, folklore, and some weird “natural” phenomena, and you’ve got An Arrow to the Moon. For fans of contemporary romance with elements of magical realism, those who like the Gray Man from The Raven Cycle, and those who liked the mythology of Teen Wolf seasons 3 and 4.

Overall, I’m glad I did read this, as the writing itself was quite lovely and beautiful in its descriptions. But, as I stated before, the story and the characters never felt fleshed out or deep enough to really hook me. I know that there are plenty of readers for whom the story did grab them and they felt so invested in the characters, but I just am not one of them. If you feel like you might still be interested in reading this book, there are plenty of 4- and 5-star reviews on Goodreads to check out. Hopefully this book speaks to you, but as I can only review my own reading experience, this wasn’t the book meant for me.

Initial Thoughts
I was super excited to be chosen for this tour. Several friends on Instagram had mentioned that they loved this book and was very excited that it was a retelling.

Some Things I Liked
Retelling. I loved that this story is an extremely unique retelling of not one, but two stories that I love, Romeo and Juliet and the Legend of Chang’e. I thought the retelling elements were just enough to feel familiar but not so much that it’s a shot for shot remake of either story.
90s setting. I also wasn’t expecting the story to take place in the early 90s and I loved that so much. It made me nostalgic and I loved that it was different than anything else I had read recently.
Romance and feelings for days. This book is rich with romance and themes that make you feel all the feelings. I’d liken it to the amount of emotions I felt when I read ALL MY RAGE by Sabaa Tahir.

One Thing I Wasn’t Crazy About
I didn’t love that the chapters were very short and there were about 8 POVs. At times, it got to be too much and I wished it had been narrowed down to fewer key POVs.

Series Value
I think this story has a conclusion. I don’t think I’d need more of this story. But, I’d love to read more from this author. I think the world building was really interesting here and while I’d love more about these characters, I thought the note the story ended on was fitting and it felt right for this story.

Final Thoughts
I went into this book thinking it was going to be very different than what it was and I was very pleasantly surprised. I’m really glad I read this book.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Always a sucker for soulmates so glad to say the MCs kept me hooked through the story! I liked the ending but i was also disinterested a lot of times in the book,

AN ARROW TO THE MOON by Emily X.R. Pan (The Astonishing Color of After) is a clever weaving of Chinese folklore with a retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Here, the star-crossed lovers are named Hunter Yee and Luna Chang, divided by their families' animosity over professional recognition for the academic fathers. Both Hunter and Luna possess extraordinary powers that they (and the reader) do not fully understand. Hunter is capable of unusual feats of marksmanship with a bow and arrow whereas Luna attracts fireflies and seems able to control water and its movement. A prophecy warns: "The darkness will rise from the ground and wrap its fingers around hearts, and in that squeeze the loudest thoughts will be of greed and cruelty and selfishness. That will be the end, unless everything is restored." The ensuing adventures are told in third person narration, alternating between Hunter and Luna's view as they explore magic, mystery, and myth. AN ARROW TO THE MOON received starred reviews from School Library Journal ("a first purchase for all high school collections, especially for libraries serving AAPI communities"), plus from Horn Book Magazine and Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.

Retellings have been trending on book lists and for all the right reasons. Whether it’s Chloe Gong’s YA romantic historical fantasy, These Violent Delights , or CB Lee’s fresh exploration of Treasure Island, as part of the “Remixed Classics” series by BIPOC authors, A Clash of Steel . Even reimaginings of Hindu epics like Ramayana (Vaishnavi Patel’s Kaikeyi ) or Mahabharata (Sangu Mandana’s A Spark of White Fire ) and fantasy inspired by Asian legends like Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan and A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin. A recent addition to this stack is An Arrow to the Moon —for it retells both the Shakespearean tragedy of Romeo & Juliet and the Chinese myth of Houyi & Chang’e. Of course, it’s something to wonder when the book is marketed majorly on the basis of which Western tale it’s inspired by, but I digress.

Luna and Hunter are two Asian American teenagers in their senior year in 1991. Hunter has recently transferred to Luna’s high school and both are unexpectedly drawn towards each other. Them being born on the same day seventeen years ago might be a reason, or maybe because they both have overbearing immigrant parents. After all, Hunter must be an obedient, ambitious elder son and Luna must get into Stanford. But these star-crossed lovers don’t need a reason to fall for each other. Except, they definitely have a reason not to: their families have despised each other and have always competed for everything —even a magical artefact.

Speaking of the speculative, these protagonists are subjects of excellence and wonder too as Hunter never misses a target with his bow and arrow, and fireflies often float around Luna like messengers of some destiny. The small town also witnesses an ominous crack spreading across it. As Hunter and Luna navigate their feelings and relationship, in the midst of familial expectations and restrictions, the magic around and within them brings them closer to something special, something they’re meant to be.

Romance in young adult books when mixed with mystical themes has often found itself overshadowed by the fantastical elements —not just from a marketing viewpoint but also when stories establish the speculative to be a central force. It’s refreshing to see the romance take centre stage in An Arrow to the Moon while the magic unfolds at the periphery. The author, in this sophomore novel of hers, truly impresses with the perfect blend of love and lore. Lush descriptions and beautiful sentences certainly aid in painting an otherworldly yet grounded backdrop for this story to unravel.

“But now he was in her orbit all day, one of them a moth, the other a flame. She wasn’t sure who was which.” This is just one of many displays of Pan’s lyrical and poetic writing, something that readers of her debut novel The Astonishing Color of After (2018) will remember and be excited to experience again after almost four years. The short chapters and an intriguing side character’s perspective make it impossible to not read this book in just a few sittings. Delivering exactly (and more) what it promises, it subtly injects the tragedy and mythology in between the lines. The legend around the Chinese goddess of the moon, her archer hero husband, and an elixir of immortality pierces the plot of this tale —earning an attention filled with awe and surprise.

Though, this book —that even the New York Times bestselling author says “is aggressively American” —wins most with its inclusion of Asian American experiences. Whether it’s the nature of one’s immigrant parents or the conflict of identity, the feeling of not belonging yet discovering a magic in that solitude, the various sacrifices made by a family and how each household depicts their love differently, or ultimately, growing up in the diaspora: where responsibility of walking down a decided path shackles you but the wide open skies also give you wings. Overall, An Arrow to the Moon , unlike those hit by Houyi in the poignant myth, lands with precision and leaves readers with heartaches.

This is a Chinese mythology retelling with a Romeo & Juliet theme. I’ve never read Chang’e & Houyi, so I’m not sure how much is changed from the original but this book was fantastic. I loved the characters, the setting and the very lyrical writing.

This book left me feeling all kinds of things, as expected of Emily X. R. Pan. I was a part of the book tour for this book and my full review can be found on: https://www.abbyreadsandreviews.com/post/an-arrow-to-the-moon-emily-x-r-pan-blog-tour

I really enjoyed Pan’s first book and loved the slight magic woven into the contemporary world, and this book is just as good! The little hints of magic in the story makes it so fun. I loved that this is a Chinese mythology / Romeo and Juliet retelling. I really enjoyed the multiple POVs in this book. I love multiple POV books as they make the story more encompassing of everything going on and it was great to hear a bit more from the smaller characters. Hunter and Luna are really interesting characters and I loved following their storylines play out and join together. The ending was a little bit of a let down but it was still a great retelling. I really enjoyed this novel and can’t wait to see what Pan writes next!

This gorgeous book is an incredible blending of folklore and Romeo and Juliet through what I believe is 11 different points of view.

This book is many things, including magical. You have to really settle in to not knowing or understanding everything, but isn't that the way with myth and fairytales? Hunter Yee is the Romeo of the story, and Luna is the Juliet. The magic comes in when Hunter never misses a shot with his bow and arrow, and the wind also assists him; and Luna is followed by helpful fireflies. As in many fairytales, the parents in the this story are not helpful, and sometimes awful. Hunter and Luna have to find ways to be together, and try to make lives of their own. It's a coming of age story and a fantasy as well. The ending definitely leans more towards the mythical, so be prepared for that. I recommend this book a both a realistic examination of what it means to rebel against your difficult family, and a fantastical escape from real life.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the digital ARC of this book.

A YA contemporary retelling of the story of hunter Houyi and goddess of the moon Chang’e, Luna and Hunter cross paths at a party and their attraction is immediate. Their budding relationship is cultivated through multiple interactions infused with magic from the first time they meet. Their relationship is so carefully crafted that I was still analyzing it days after I finished reading the book.

The mystery and the magic urged me forward, page after page. Despite my dislike of too many points of view, I was less bothered here because each chapter helped to fill in the mystery and kept me engaged. I was constantly trying to unravel the connections between the characters and the strange occurrences. Frustration did seep its way in as some answers were not exactly forthcoming, especially as the ending drew closer. Jason Mendoza from The Good Place described the feeling best: “I’ll go to a Skrillex concert and I’ll be waiting for the bass to drop and it…it’ll never come.” The bass eventually drops, as did my mouth and my chest and the book. And, oh, what an ending it was!

An Arrow to the Moon is a magical retelling, and Pan successfully creates a contemporary myth, but my head and my heart were at war. My heart adored it but my head kept telling me I had so many questions left unanswered. I’ve decided the intricacies of the novel will likely be uncovered best through more discussions and further rereading.

An arrow to the moon was a beautiful heartbreaking retelling of the Chinese mythology houyi and chang'e and Romeo and Juliet (which should’ve been a sign this book would hurt)

Thank you Hachette Book Group Canada for sending me this e-ARC :) All thoughts and opinions are my own!

This book was everything I could’ve dreamed off and more! It beautifully featured Chinese and Taiwanese representation as both families refuse to acknowledge the other as they have different views on Taiwan. This book is probably my newest obsession!

This multi POV book follows Hunter and Luna (obviously our R&J) as they face the mysterious crack affecting their town while battling their rival families and the secrets hunters parents are keeping! Technically they’re also coming of age so there are cute awkward moments where they’re figuring their relationship out! OH! Also Hunter has a little brother Cody has a bunny and I love them so much!! They deserve the world! The ending was sooo painful but cute at the same time and it did not stop me from crying at 1am when I finished this!

I’m so glad that there’s more AAPI representation in the writing industry! I loved An Arrow To The Moon and I’m so excited to continue reading Emily’s work!