When the Moon Hits Your Eye takes us through the first month of absolute chaos after the moon turns to cheese. Each day, we jump into a new POV, from astronauts to billionaires to small-town cheese shop owners to a pastor. Given that this is John Scalzi, and especially after reading The Kaiju Preservation Society, I was expecting way more humor. His recent books have leaned into the ridiculous, humor side of sci-fi, and with the premise and cover, I assumed this one would follow suit.

But… it didn’t. And I honestly couldn’t tell if Scalzi was aiming for humor and missed the mark or if that wasn’t his goal at all. Either way, the book wasn’t bad, it just felt kind of meh. A lot of the POVs didn’t really hook me, and I definitely didn’t need to spend time inside the head of yet another billionaire with a space company. On the flip side, I loved the feuding cheese shop owner brothers and their employees-turned-lovers, that storyline was easily my favorite.

Overall, I found myself constantly putting this book down and not feeling any urge to pick it back up. It had some good moments, but for the most part, it was just… there.

For the most part, the story takes place each day of the lunar cycle—chapters are titled Day One through Day Thirty, with a few assorted future days at the end.

There's a lot of wordplay, humor ranging from light chuckles to full-blown hilarity, satire, political and social commentary, pop culture, and even a few philosophical moments.

Among the notable characters are scientists; a president who doesn't read security briefings; a billionaire with pet Congresspeople; a female astronaut who wishes she had become a firefighter instead (and other astronauts); three retired men from different backgrounds who hang out together at a diner (they also interact with a server and a reporter over the course of the book); a pastor and his church community; movie script writers and executives; a group of nerdy highschoolers; feuding brothers who own competing cheese stores in the Wisconsin capitol (Fromagery and DemocraCheese), along with their wives and college-student employees; and an author. I especially liked the beginning of the Annette (Fromagery employee) and Felix (DemocraCheese employee) storyline. Don't skip the Afterword.

This was great vacation reading: I started the book on a flight and continued enjoying it poolside. This definitely isn't my favorite Scalzi work, but I was engrossed and did annotate heavily while I was reading, so I bumped up the rating a bit. Too, I find myself anxious for publication, when I'll be free to share specific parts with certain people and to discuss it generally with even more people. I will likely read it again in the near future, with my ears.

3.5 stars. This is the second book I have read by John Scalzi. My first, Starter Villain, was such a awesome read that I had high expectations for this one. The premise is a far-out though fun one; what would you do if the moon turned to cheese? Lunar samples as well as the moon itself, simply turn to cheese one day. What kind? We never learn!!

I love Scalzi's humor but didn't see as much of that in this book. While there, a lot of the stories leaned a bit more serious, especially near the end. I did appreciate the rich billionaire character who invests in the space program (hmmmm) and his storyline. I also liked the way the novel chose to end.

I think the problem that I had with this novel is that I'm not a short story reader. While there a was thread going from chapter to chapter, it felt like a series of short stories. I found the individual vignettes enjoyable just not enough to keep me running back to the book. Still a great read with some good and humorous insights into human behavior.

What would you do if the Moon, without warning, turned to cheese? Follow the random, hilarious conundrum from a myriad of perspectives. From the President of the United States to a group of friends who meet regularly at a diner for coffee, you'll see how this potentially life altering event is met with a mélange of emotions.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye was very fun. I cycled through laughing out loud, grinning like a goon, and tearing up. Scalzi has a wonderful way of conjuring wild scenarios and then writing uniquely human experiences. Each perspective felt real and different. It was like reading a different short story each chapter that interacted and related to the same topic in unknowable ways. Which probably makes no sense. Just pick up the book.

This is a fairly light & quick read. If you're looking for something quirky, don't hesitate to consider When the Moon Hits Your Eye!

I have fallen in love with the humor and writing of John Scalzi. His ideas and concepts are so wonky and out there, his books are a total palate cleanser between harder/deeper reads.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye starts off with a bang all about how suddenly overnight the actual moon has turned to cheese. We then follow a variety of different groups/people and see how they are processing this change. Full of humor and wit, this makes for a crazy and fun read. That said, I didn't feel connected to the characters are really the plot overall. There was so much switching around within the POV's that it was a bit distracting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the gifted e-arc of this book.

Funny and weird and charming. It's nice to find a sff book that's not aggressively focused on setting up lore or a sequel. You do have to have an ability to switch between a few narrative styles, and some of those characters will feel a little "trendy" or "too on the nose" for some readers.

When the Moon Hits Your Eyes by John Scalzi
Genre: sci-fi comedy
Pub date: March 25, 2025

From the New York Times bestselling author of Starter Villain comes an entirely serious take on a distinctly unserious subject: what would really happen if suddenly the moon were replaced by a giant wheel of cheese. It's a whole new moooooon.

I experienced this book in waves. In some chapters, I felt deeply invested in the bizarreness and ridiculousness of the situations, while other chapters could easily have been omitted without any loss.

The book has one main storyline: the end of life on Earth. However, the narrative is told through a collection of different individual’s perspectives, making it feel like a compilation of short stories.

This book attempts to reflect the current state of society and explores how people might respond in a crazy scenario.

Give this book a try if you like:
🧀End of the world trope
🧀Quirky books
🧀Absurd scenarios

John Scalzi's new book, When the Moon Hits Your Eye, is a farce of a story.

"The moon (and all of the moon rocks on earth) has unexpectedly turned to cheese. Or as NASA calls it - an organic matrix. What?!? And now a piece has split off and is headed to Earth possibly to end all life as we know it. Now what?"

Scalzi writes a ridiculous sounding scenario - puts lots of different people in it - and by the end you're thinking "That could happen!" There's a billionaire who thinks he smart but makes some horrible decisions. Lots of characters having to decide what to do at the end of the world.
There's some interesting commentary about publishing and agents - not sure how much personal experience from Scalzi went into that.

A good change-of-pace story with a couple of unexpected nuggets.

What would happen if the moon turned to cheese? This book explores that - not in a scientific or technical way, but instead, in a human way. Each chapter follows a different person across the U.S. each day for the lunar cycle. From a museum director to a tech millionaire to an aspiring author, we see how they all navigate this new reality.

It took me a while to connect to the story, since I had no time to connect to any character. If a character we had previously read about showed up, it took me a while to remember who they were. Eventually, as the book went on, some stories intertwined and made everything feel more complete.

I enjoyed that this was a more “quiet” type of sci-fi rather than a “save the world” sci-fi.

This was great! Scalzi’s writing is always hilarious and this is no exception. I also absolutely adored the structure of this. It’s all interconnected vignettes centered around a major event, so that you see what’s going on from many different perspectives. Some characters are referenced multiple times, but each chapter feels different from one another, which keeps the story fresh. I was completely transfixed by how the story was told and how it all unfolded. The only reason this wasn’t 5 stars is I didn’t love how the ending came together - it fizzled a bit for me, but I also got what the author was going for I think. All in all, I HIGHLY recommend this one!

Thank you to Tor Books and Netgalley for this ARC. When the Moon Hits Your Eye comes out 3/25!

4.5/5

I had an absolute riot of a time! I loved Kaiju and it was the only other Scalzi I have read before this so I'm happy to find he's not a one-hit wonder for me. I've got many of his other works on my TBR just haven't gotten to them yet.

What I loved about this was not only the absurd concept that the moon would turn to cheese but seeing so many different perspectives from people and their reaction to the moon turning to cheese and how events unfold. It literally had me having my own little existential crisis wondering what I would do in their shoes and what I'm doing with my life right now, etc, so thanks for that Scalzi. I do wish we could have stayed with a few characters longer than we did but since this book isn't about any one person and instead about the collective experience, it's unnecessary but I can at least let those characters live more in my head. I will say, the Lessa Sarah story GOT ME GOOD. That one was so close to home it was scary with the emotions and struggles she went through.

Overall, this is excellent and I wish it was five times longer so it wouldn't be over so fast.

John Scalzi is my go-to for laugh out loud sci-fi reads. In When the Moon Hits Your Eye, John Scazli asks, "What if our moon were turned into cheese?" What follows is a series of vignettes from a wide variety of perspectives - from billionaires to cheesemongers to scientists. I thoroughly enjoyed this "what-if" scenario that is ridiculous, disastrous, and spot-on satire, a perfect reflection of our modern era.

Scalzi brings his trademark humor in a new wild novel that asks, "What if the Moon suddenly turned into cheese?" The narrative is told through many different perspectives as each chapter shows a new character(s) dealing with this new cheesy moon. Thus you get some characters that are more compelling than others. While I didn't care for the Elon Musk adjacent character, there are characters that I would've loved to spend more time with. Fans of Kaiju Preservation Society and Starter Villain should find plenty to enjoy with this newest novel.

Thank you @torbooks for the complimentary ARC. ♡

🧀 One-sentence summary: What would humanity do if the moon turned into a stinky ball of cheese?

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎:
▶︎ 𝗟𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘁𝘀
▶︎ 𝗣𝘂𝗻𝗻𝘆 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗼𝗿
▶︎ 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗸𝘆 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀
▶︎ 𝗗𝗼𝗼𝗺𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀

Because the book is told through a series of personal vignettes, it can feel disjointed, lacking a clear unifying plot to tie the curds together. There is a ton of cheesy humor and some witty dialogue.

Each chapter follows a day in the lunar cycle. Some chapters had me roaring with laughter, whilst others I felt could have been cut and still been Gouda!

Although there are high stakes (the end of life on Earth), this is a series of individual character studies rather than a hunt to solve the existential threat to humanity. I alternated between enjoying the ride and wanting it to be over already.

Will I read more from Scalzi? Absolutely. He is one of Mr. Brewdy Reader’s favorite authors.

🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘 Final verdict: for an outlandish premise, this was oddly entertaining.

Give it a try if you are into absurd concepts and dad jokes.

The moon has turned to cheese. And what does everybody do? Hit up Reddit, buy books, throw Flip Off the Moon parties, and have an existential crisis or three.

This was very silly, but very fun. The jokes were great, and I was completely immersed in the mystery of the moon suddenly turning to cheese. And we get a whole bunch of POVs, which was really interesting and got us a lot of different voices, but it also frustrated me a bit because nobody really got a lot of time.

I loved all the different media types from Reddit to chat conversations to video transcripts and interviews. It was such a clever way to keep my attention engaged.

I enjoyed this, but the way everything was left felt a little bit of a let down. Nothing had changed in this world at the end of all things. We end with a time skip epilogue, and nothing is different. And we don’t even get an explanation for how or why the moon changed? I was disappointed.

My thanks to both NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the opportunity to read this arc!

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the opportunity to read When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi. Funny and engaging. Just what we always expect from Scalzi - excellent storytelling

In John Scalzi’s When the Moon Hits Your Eye, the moon has turned to cheese, what now?

So, When the Moon Hits Your Eye did not work for me for a couple of reasons. First, the structure of the story, looking at an event from a variety of perspectives as they experience it, is one that is hard for me to stay engaged with. Second, I had a hard time reading this story in this particular moment. I found reading about governments responding competently and listening to scientists painful at a moment when the infrastructure of the government of my nation is being dismantled with a sledgehammer and scientists are being treated like parasites. Other people may find it comforting.

There were things I liked. This is still a book written by John Scalzi so it’s got some very funny and engaging moments. The revelation in chapter one of the moon rocks suddenly becoming cheese is a strong start. Some of the moments of perspective are great. I very much enjoyed the way the tech billionaire character ended.

One of the reasons that Kaiju Preservation Society worked so well was that it met the moment in which it was published with hope and creativity. It was such a relief to read a book that addressed the realities of Covid and then moved to an alternate reality. The billionaires sucked and were hoist on their own petard. The tech billionaire in Moon was something of a double edged sword. On the one hand his ending is delightfully ignominious. But in this moment in time, it feels watered down. It’s not Scalzi’s fault that the political reality changed before publication. I’m looking forward to his next book.

Again, my experience is mine. Other people will find it fun and comforting.

I received this as an advance reader copy from Tor and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

A profoundly silly premise treated relatively seriously. The Moon turns into cheese, and Scalzi covers all of the ramifications of it, the changes in science, politics, entertainment and every day life. It reminded me a bit of Max L. Brook’s World War Z, less of an adventure story and more like a narrative history. It felt a bit like Scalzi wrote this book because he lost a bet, but he kind of pulled it off.

Unfortunately, I did not finish this title. I generally enjoy John Scalzi quite a bit, but When the Moon Hits Your Eye didn't work for me at all. I put it down after the first few chapters and never picked it back up. The premise is just far too unbelievable, and while I am sure he has an explanation in there, I'm not interested enough to keep reading to find out.

Thank you so much to Tor publishing group and NetGalley for this copy!

Ok, so this has to be one of the weirdest books I've ever read, but I had so much fun reading this, like SO much fun.

What would you do if the moon suddenly turned to cheese? You'd probably think that it wouldn't have much of an impact on your life... but you never know! This novel follows various characters in the world in their individual lives trying to live through this bizarre thing that's happening, and how the moon being a wheel of cheese impacted their lives in the strangest, most unexpected ways. People found love because the moon was cheese, people got revenge because the moon was cheese, people buried old hatchets because the moon was cheese. You see the pattern? The moon connects everything LOL.

On a more serious note, I really loved how Scalzi portrayed human nature in this book. It was so incredibly accurate. Some people used this situation to their advantage to rise while putting others down (especially in the case of rich vs poor, where money gives you a lot of shortcuts) while others used this weird time in their lives to self reflect. Yes, it had an incredibly strange plotline, but the main message of this book felt so strong and really highlighted our society as it is today. Who do you want to be when the unexpected occurs? Who will you lean on? What will you do? Those answers are different for everyone, and said answers were portrayed so well and believable in this book.

So, I'll leave you with this: I giggled like a manic while reading, I also shed a few tears too. And my faith in humanity went on a wild rollercoaster ride. I didn't think I'd be so emotionally impacted by this book (because it's a silly storyline) but I really thought about our society and how unforgiving this world may be and the impact that we as individuals leave on this earth and our loved ones. I finished this book absolutely loving it and I highly, highly recommend it.