Moonkissed review – Secrets of the Forest

Published by Hamley Books, Roxan has read the new novel Moonkissed by Dutch writer Latoya Morris. This book is her first English young adult novel. Earlier, she wrote the Dutch novels Gebroken Adem, Daigho and Nooit Gedacht. To stay in the spirit of the book, you can read this Moonkissed review in English too! 

To read more about the Dutch novels of Latoya Morris, read our Gebroken Adem and Daigho reviews.

When seventeen-year-old Sadie Quinn is forced to move to the wilderness of the Canadian Great Bear Rainforest for a year for her father’s work, she is not amused. He will be spending the year shooting a documentary about the legendary Spirit Bear or “Kermode” that has made its home in the forest and has been spotted with a cub.

Sadie, however, imagines she will be spending the year in isolation. Far from her friends and amenities such as cinemas and shops.

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A city girl far from home

Even though Sadie resents the isolation of her new home initially, even she is not immune to the beauty of the wild nature that surrounds her. She becomes fascinated by her father’s work and starts following him on his expeditions. Neither does it hurt Sadie’s mood when their handsome local guide Riverty shows an interest in her.

But then Sadie meets the mysterious Tarqeq in the woods near her new home. He claims to serve the Moon God. His mission is to protect all animals in the rainforest from humans, and he needs Sadie’s help. After this encounter, strange things start happening around Sadie that defy explanation.

Moonkissed review – The mysteries of the Great Bear Rainforest

As Sadie is settling in and discovering her newfound love of nature, disturbing reports start to come in. People are dying in the forest and their deaths are seemingly caused by brutal attacks by a wild animal.

But when someone close to Sadie is arrested for the attacks, her faith in everything she knows will be tested. Can she unravel the mysteries of the Great Bear Rainforest before it is too late?

A spoiled brat with a loving family

Sadie is a self-proclaimed spoiled brat and city girl. This is also what annoyed me the most about her, although I cannot say she is an inaccurate portrayal of many teenage girls. Obsessed with her friends and cute boys, she feels that her world is ending when she moves from the city of Vancouver to the middle of nowhere for a year.

What I liked about Moonkissed is that it offers a very positive portrayal of an adopted child and their family. Sadie was adopted by her parents Norah and Richard after her birth parents died. Even though she sometimes fights with her adoptive parents – as every teenager does – she never for a moment doubts her parents love her and will help her if she needs it. This is a refreshing change from a lot of books where it often seems like a young heroine (or hero) has to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders alone.

Moonkissed review – A modern myth

The thing that drew me to Moonkissed was the idea of a magical story set in the unspoiled Canadian wilderness featuring an animal that is almost a modern myth itself: the spirit bear. It is a subspecies of the black bear and very few truly white ones exist; these are called spirit bears.

In the folklore of the indigenous peoples of Canada, they are said to have magical powers and can appear as guides to travellers to help them find places of magic. Moonkissed was inspired by this almost mythical bear as well as native legends about the Moon God and the Sun Goddess.

Teenage drama and godlike interventions

Although Latoya Morris’ love of Canada’s spectacular nature and wildlife shines through on every page of the story, I was a bit disappointed with the story itself. Both the plot of the story and its characters lack the complexity and depth I expected.

The plot is rather deus ex machina heavy. I think the problem lies – for a significant part – with the marketing of this book. Moonkissed is marketed for young adults by publisher Hamley Books. However, the main character Sadie Quinn, is a very immature seventeen-year-old who still depends on her parents for everything.

Moonkissed review – Age is not everything

I do not think an age guide is the most important thing for enjoying a book though. I personally have read a lot of young adult, teen, and even children’s novels when the story and characters appealed to me. And in many cases, the line between adult and young adult is unclear to me. But I cannot help but expect a difference in complexity, graphic descriptions of violence, or the way romantic relationships are portrayed based on a publisher’s choice of marketing their books as adult/young adult, teen, or children’s books.

Moonkissed – for me – would have been more successful if marketed as a book for teens of fourteen years and up. As an adult reader, I was disappointed in this book. But my fourteen-year-old teenage girl self would have loved to read this story about magic, animals, and both the power of nature and our duty in conserving it for future generations!

Title: Moonkissed
Author: Latoya Morris
Publisher: Hamley Books
ISBN: 978-94-649-4505-8

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