I an unable to review this title, as it was archived before I had a chance to download and read it. This feedback is only to stop this title from adversely affecting my netgalley feedback rate. If in the future I have the opportunity to read this title, I will post a proper review here.

The Moth Keeper was a beautiful middle grade graphic novel about friendship, community, and having the courage to pursue greater things--even when they go against the flow of the current. I really loved the art of this novel, and found both the layout and illustrations to be both captivating and enmeshed with the story beautifully. The characters were also great, and I really liked the story that was told.

Once again, K. O'Neill weaves a lyrical and unique fantasy story around picturesque illustrations. Like the Tea Dragon books, I loved how striking and original the storytelling and the art both were. They really created a world that I want to live in, while at the same time reflecting issues that are faced in the real world. I look forward to reading many more books by this author in the future.

If you want an excellent example of lunar-punk, this is it!

This fantasy graphic novel is about a tribe of people who are awake at night and sleep during the day, living by the rhythms and patterns of the desert at night. The main character is the newly appointed "moth keeper" acting as a moth herder to the very special moths that make sure certain pollination happens that will ensure the whole life cycle keeps spinning. Its a big responsibility and there are ups and downs as the characters both hold onto tradition and learn to embrace some new ideas.

And the color palette is stunning.

The night scenes deftly capture the night sky, moon glow, stars shinning, crickets chirping, cold night winds and warm crackling fires. It captures just how dark and empty a desert can be but also shows how alive it is and never muddies the reader's view.

The day scenes burn with bright desert sunshine, you can almost feel the baking heat but also appreciate the delicate petals blossoming, hear the music playing, and see how gorgeous the setting can be flooded by the sun.

Having previously enjoyed K. O’Neill’s previous work, I was very excited to see what would be waiting in these pages. I was not disappointed.

Anya is a character who you can find yourself in. She does her very best to stay composed, keep her head above water, but underneath it all is struggling with so much self doubt, anxiety and the self-imposed need to keep up appearances. We’ve all had moments like this, if not a constant stream of living in it, if, like me, you are often masking to fit in. I had a lot of empathy for her and her story, finding myself quite emotional at times.

As in O’Neill’s other works, there is a lot of representation present in this graphic novel, and the way it touches on themes like living with a disability at a young age, as this is something I could have done with seeing when reading in my early years of being sick. Estell uses a walking stick and talks at one point about the difficulties in making friends as a disabled child, and this is something which is so important, both from being represented as a disabled person, and also being encouraged to stop and think as an able bodied child, parent and / or adult.

The mythology created surrounding the moths is truly touching, and is as beautiful as the art. It carries the story as a constant theme throughout, allowing you to become fully engaged in something immediately, wanting to know more as the story progresses. As Anya starts to struggle and then searches for a way to redeem herself, the moths accompany her on her journey.

O’Neill’s art style is gorgeous, combining glimpses of the world around us and wonders of their own imagination to create something truly breathtaking, warm and inviting. It feels like the reading equivalent of drinking a mug of your favourite tea; cosy and happy.

Being the Moth Keeper is a lonely task, but Anya wants this. She had her reasons that she wants to protect the moths and prove herself to the village that adopted her. Her friend astutely notices though that Anya might be struggling, but the master Moth Keeper is thankful to spend time with his beloved again that he misses it. Anya explores the day, faces flashbacks, looses the moths, and finds that this task just might be too big for her. It's quiet and moving in the way K. O'Neill's works are and readers will find something to carry from this tale.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC!

Great title, beautiful art and story, as well as character design and artwork. The story was well told with great transitions as well.

“How could I run off and play in the sun while everyone else is working so hard? If I can’t do the job I promised I would do, what good am I to anyone?”

I was so excited to finally have a new Graphic Novel by O’Neill. The way they creat these worlds were you want to jump into and insert yourself into the story.
This beautiful village under the moon and the stars where our MC Anya has promised to be the keeper of the Moon-moths as they honor the Moon-spirit that gives them the flowers that provide the livelihood they all depend on.

But Anya struggles with the darkness and the loneliness that come with her job. She wants to do whats best for her community but as this takes a toll on her, she finds the breaking point where everyone loses.

This book has such amazing illustrations and the author knows exactly how to balance when to add text and when none is needed. The story flows slowly but you can savor as it unfolds. It has undertones that are a bit darker than her previous work, touching on parental abandonment, loneliness, burnout… but also on how as a community we can work together and support each other. On how a friend can be there and see and intervene when something isn’t going right.

Anya lives in the night-village, where moths gifted by the Moon Spirit help make life easier in the harsh desert. By learning from the current keeper, Yeolen, Anya hopes to become the next Moth-Keeper. She knows how important the job is, and Anya loves taking care of the Moon-Moths. Her friend Estell, who’s training to be an apothecary, has even learned to make moth food. Working together is a vital part of life in the night-village. But as she spends cold nights alone, glimpsing the lives of others during the day, Anya starts to dream of living under the sun.

A chance meeting with folks from the neighboring village shows Anya that yes, life in the sun is warm and easy at times, but heat and light entail their own challenges. Though she pushes herself to keep going, one night, Anya’s lantern goes out and the moths slip away. Anya wants to be a light for others, but to help her village, she’ll have to remember that she sometimes needs help too. A mysterious light above the desert sands could offer a clue...and perhaps what it means to be the Moth-Keeper needs to change. Wonderful art and a moving tale of friendship and community will remind readers that caring for people includes caring for yourself.

Thank you to Random House Graphic and TBRBeyondTours for letting me join the tour and a physical ARC in exchange for an honest review.

From the Eisner Award-Winning Author of the Tea Dragon Society Series comes a poignant and whimsical middle grade graphic novel about a girl named Anya, the new guardian of the luminous Moon-Moths that pollinate the Night-Flower trees. Anya's village relies on the trees to thrive, and she fulfills her nightly duties of taking the creatures outside to bloom the flowers. But what happens when every night takes a toll and she longs for something more?

O'Neill's illustrations do not disappoint. Desert landscapes are filled with flowers, fauna, and mountain ranges to set the enchanting mood of the narrative, with a touch of the Moon-Moth's glow to entrance readers in a dreamy reading experience. The lush shades of warm and cool color palettes are effective to show the different atmospheres and customs between the night and day villages, who have their own unique ways of being there for their communities.

The balance of text and textless page spreads capture the villages' folktales, daily apothocary routines, and the depth of Anya's childhood past of abandonment as she yearns to discover more about other communities in the present moment. Readers will learn about how burning out is not the answer to prove their worth to anyone and that they're always enough.

o'neill's stories are gentle medicine. they always make me feel like the world is a warmer, softer, kinder place than it seems.

this is a sweet, ambient, wintery graphic novel that starts slow. it's about a community that has a symbiotic relationship with sacred moths who pollinate their tree, and about the pensive mothkeeper who guides the moths through the darkness each night.

this story has much of o'neill's classic cozy comforting community, but its warmth is contrasted with a deep, cold loneliness. our protagonist self-isolates, doing her dutiful mothkeeping job alone each night, rarely allowing herself to rest with her loved ones. can the deepness of the night be balanced with the light of the day?

while o'neill's work often contains notes of melancholy, this story is darker than their others. the quiet, solitary sadness often reminded me of the little prince. there is so much empathy and mutual care.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I am obsessed with the Tea Dragon society so I knew I had to read this when I saw it! I was not disappointed at all! First the illustrations were just so beautiful. The story was so calm and peaceful. I loved every bit of it. It was sweet and great for all ages. I highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the arc of this in exchange for my honest review.

Very lovely graphic novel. A few wordless stretches that made me slow down and appreciate the art (I rush through things!). I was fascinated by the backmatter, which included a brief note on real-life moths that served as inspiration, and of course lovely process sketches.

Anything K. O'Neill writes and illustrates is amazing. They have built such beautiful and creative worlds that are inclusive and welcoming of all creatures and ideas. The Moth Keeper is a wonderful story of a person who doesn't feel they know their place, hoping to find their role and their skills in the world. Through determination, kindness, and community, they are able to find a loving balance of keeping the moths and caring for their community.

This was beautiful. The artwork was stunning and really helped to portray the appropriate emotions as the story unfolded. I don’t read a lot of graphic novels but seem to gravitate towards beautiful color schemes when I do. This one did not disappoint and I found myself just taking every frame in.

I thought the story itself was beautiful. We always wonder if the grass is greener on the other side and when we decide to take a leap to discover the answer to that question we often learn a lot about ourselves and those that live with or around us. Anya lives under the moon and dreams of what it’s like to live under the sun. When she decides to take an opportunity to find out she soon finds that although being a Moth Keeper is a lonely task, the community as a whole relies on her to keep them safe and abundant. She realizes that she may spend a lot of time alone but her community is always with her as she walks the moonlit desert.

I read this to my daughter for bedtime and it was so fun seeing her reaction to the pictures, even if she didn’t fully understand the story. I definitely recommend this to any graphic novel lover. It’s a sweet story of finding yourself and where you belong.

I loved this story a lot : it is beautiful, emotional, and poetic. The main character goes through strong doubts about her capacities to handle being a moth keeper, a huge responsibility among the inhabitants of the Moon village.

The Moth keeper is full of hope, dream, magic, friendship, love. It is a story about work dedication : being a moth keeper is a lonely job as you spend hours alone in the dark, far from the village. And it isn’t what Anya thought it would be when she accepted the challenge.

I loved the folklore ! The story is rooted in the legend of the Moon Spirit, and that mythological character watches over the villagers. The art is mesmerizing and the characters are very touching. It is definitely a graphic novel to discover !

4.5/5 stars

This was a super cute and cozy read! The MC, Anya, learns a valuable lesson (that made me tear up in the end). The story doesn't really pick up until over halfway but I kind of enjoyed this because you really get a feel for this world. There are moments where it's just pictures depicting the character's everyday lives and it was really nice to have an understanding of how things work and without just being told through dialogue.
💚
The end did wrap up a bit quickly and I was left with a few questions so I'm wondering/hoping that means we will see more of these characters in the future. The art style was cute, not my usual cup of tea, but I can appreciate it.
💚
I would love to finally read K. O'Neill's Tea Dragon series. After reading this and enjoying it I think I could like those books even more!

Thank you to TBR and Beyond Tours and Oni Press for the e arc of this book!

When Anya is finally able to be The Moth Keeper, she works hard at her solitary task because she knows it is for the good of her village. But down in her bones, she craves the sun, and it makes it hard for her to continue her job of being the Moths' guiding light.


This was so cute! The art style is amazing and I love the world building so much. K O'Neill does an incredible job telling stories with pictures, and I feel like I got so much out of the art alone in this one! I really love Anya and her mentor and her friends. The job of Moth Keeper itself is so interesting and I would read more stories in this world! I love Anya's journey and what she learns. Great story!

K. O’Neill originally hooked me with The Tea Dragon Society and they did it again with The Moth Keeper! The Moth Keeper is a middle grade graphic novel about Anya, a new Moth Keeper and protector of the precious lunar moths that her village depends upon. While Anya is initially eager to prove her worth, she also realizes that her new role is a lonely one.

Both the story and the illustrations in this graphic novel are gorgeous! I enjoyed the way that the relevant backstory was woven in through various methods such as reflection and storytelling. The author utilizes the pictures to tell the story just as much (maybe even more so) as the words with full-page spreads containing minimal or even no text. I loved reading about Anya’s journey to find her true worth and I enjoyed the involvement of numerous side characters. This is a book that I will be recommending to middle grade and up readers.

Note: I used Numbers based on the CAWPLIE System, so the numbers will be out of ten as opposed to five.

Rating: 4.5

Characters: 8

The Mothkeeper had wonderful characters. Anya had a mother, but she had found a family in the village, and the found family moments were wonderful. Besides Anya, my favorite character was Estell, Anya’s friend who she really cared for, and they both helped each other. Aimoss is another character in the story that I loved. He was the Moth Keeper before Anya, and they had some wonderful scenes together.

Plot: 8

As someone who loves stories with celestial elements, this story is wonderful. I loved how the moths were weaved into the lives of the village, and how the villagers like Anya and Aimoss helped them. The Mothkeeper had a wonderful story about finding yourself. This Graphic Novel is a journey, and I loved the journey that Anya went on.

Writing: 10

The Moth Keeper was first read by K.O’Neil and I loved the writing so much. When it comes to a graphic novel for me, you need to have a book that matches the tone of the story, and I felt like The Moth Keeper had that. There were scenes that were lighter in tone, and I just loved how you could tell the characters were having fun. Some scenes in this graphic novel were heavy, and you could tell by the tonal shift between these scenes, and the ones that were might lighter in tone.

Art style:10

The art style of The Moth Keeper is so cute. I love the warm colors and pallets used in this book. The more intense scenes, or scenes in the night, were colored with dark blues, black, and light yellow due to the months. I love how the color pallets matched what was going on in the scene. Overall, this was a lovely art style, and I loved how it helped set the story of the book.

Enjoyment: 9 &Recommend for

I really enjoyed this story. I had a blast reading this and the story was so sweet. I loved the characters, and how they were all connected. I recommend this if you enjoy Middle-Grade Graphic Novels.