Book Review: The Moth Girl by Heather
[ID: A book cover with an illustration of a girl surrounded by blue moths with her eyes closed sitting on a white shelf in front of a stack of books with their edges out surrounded by white fluffy stuffing that looks like clouds. Two blue butterflies frame each side of the book with two light pink roses. Silver star confetti is scattered in front of the book and along its top edge.]
Let me introduce you to THE MOTH GIRL by Heather Kamins, releasing March 8th, 2022!
March is just the gift that keeps giving with amazing disability reads! Thank you so much to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for sending this book my way. It kept me on the edge of my seat and made me think deeply about chronic illness. I wonder what it would’ve been like to read this as a teen. I would have really appreciated it when I was first sick. I’m so glad that this books exists for a new generation of teens!
Anna is a regular teenaged girl who runs track and goes to parties with her best friend. But one day at track practice, Anna falls unconscious - but instead of falling down, she falls up, defying gravity. In another book, this would be the beginning of a classic superhero plot. Instead, THE MOTH GIRL follows Anna as she’s diagnosed with lepidopsy: a rare illness that causes symptoms reminiscent of moths: floating, attraction to light, a craving for sugar, and for an unlucky few, more dangerous physical manifestations.
Lepidopsy may be a magical illness, but THE MOTH GIRL is based solidly on the real experience of chronic illness (the author herself has Lupus). It shows one rather average girl’s journey through hospitals, support groups, and her own body which overnight has become unfamiliar. I think the author has managed to portray the complicated cycle of chronic illness through a unique fantasy lens.
Fantasy has been used to discuss love, war, and many more challenging subjects, but at last it’s being used as a lens to examine what it means to be sick in our society. I can’t wait to see the discussions that come out of reading this book. It made me think long and hard about my own experience with chronic illness and left me with many questions to ponder.
At times I wanted a little more detail on the magical world of THE MOTH GIRL. It feels a bit unmoored from time and place. Anna loves her Walkman and uses payphones, but at least in the advanced copy I read, all the bands she’s obsessed with are made up. I wish that the author had used real bands to give it a distinctly real setting OR leaned into the magic and expanded on the origins of lepidopsy and the other magical illnesses depicted.
THE MOTH GIRL is slow and thoughtful. It’s a story about friendship and self-discovery. There’s no romance, but Anna goes on a journey to find her voice, her identity, and what really matters to her. True friendship is revealed and tested. Overall, THE MOTH GIRL was at times maddening and beautiful. I wanted to shake Anna and I wanted to hug her for a thousand years. I treasure this book and I am so, so thankful it exists. Please don’t miss out on this book!