The Moth Keeper by K. O’Neill
Rating: 
Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.
From the same author as The Tea Dragon Society, we have The Moth Keeper, so I know I like the art style and it was partly one of the reasons I chose this book. But the story itself was worth the read too.
In this book we follow Anya, who is training to be a Moth Keeper, a slightly lonely but crucial responsibility and a great honour. It is lonely because they are the protectors of lunar moths that allow a special flower to bloom once a year, which is needed for the village to thrive. This does mean you end up basically living at night and seeing mostly nights and very little sunshine and very few of your people.
Anya wants to prove her worth and take over the post, but it feels like a heavy cost to have to do less with friends. Then of course, Anya notices something that could cause harm to the moths and somehow breaks tradition to try to move forward.
The story is very sweet and gentle, it has an intricate nightly world initially, based around the moths and our little village, it is full of a fantastical and yet simple way of life. It is also about growing up, about making choices and pondering what thebeaten path brings, or if the choices you make, once you actually go through are exactly what you wanted. What if you want it, but also want to be able to do more, to engage in with your community?
Very sweet, lush and hopeful, worth a read for the lovely dreamy art, and for a sweet story.
