The Oceanography of the Moon

I was pretty darn giddy when I heard Glendy Vanderah had a new book coming, and even more thrilled to get a review copy! Her debut Where the Forest Meets the Stars is one of my all-time favorite books (Review). While I was hoping for the same spark with this one, it didn’t quite deliver the same magic, though I did genuinely like it.

Riley Mays is a naive 21-year-old who’s been raised by her older cousins, Sachi and Alec, on their Wisconsin farm since the tragic deaths a decade earlier of both her beloved aunt, Julia, and her troubled mother, Nikki.  When celebrated author, Vaughn Orr, shows up at the farm one night after running out of gas while scoping potential properties to buy, Sachi recognizes him and offers him a place to stay to relax and work through his writers’ block.  It’s immediately clear that Riley and Vaughn are simultaneously attracted and repelled by each other and are both wounded souls carrying secrets.  How their lives intertwine is the basis for this story.

What worked for me?  I almost always love stories with a redemptive arc, and this was all about our main characters finding their way from darkness to light and learning to get out from under the weight of their respective pasts.  Like her debut novel, Vanderah also brings a lovely thread of magical realism - this time in the form of Alec and Sachi’s delightful eight-year-old gender-fluid, vintage dress-wearing son, Kiran, and his mysterious clock part/fossil creations, as well as Riley’s memories of her aunt Julia.  Almost all the characters were likable in their own ways and, despite some rough spots, by the end I cared for all of them and was rooting for their happiness.

What didn’t quite work?  Vaughn’s character is 29, but read older, and Riley is 21, but read more like a teen, so the relational aspect felt weird when it shouldn’t have, though the age gap made sense in the context of the story.  Occasionally, their dialogue was short and choppy because they’re both so guarded, which also made them slower for me to warm up to, and their hot/cold dynamic took awhile to get used to. Finally, although the story and final reveals were ultimately clever, albeit a bit unbelievable, I did get a little tired of their “I’ve got a terrible secret” thing.

I really debated the rating, because it’s a solid 3.5 stars. Issues aside, it’s still a sweet story, and if you like ones where characters have experienced trauma and come out stronger on the other side, it’s definitely worth a look. I know I’ll continue to watch for Vanderah’s future books!

★★★ ½ (rounded to 3)

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley, and author Glendy Vanderah for this ARC.  My opinions are given freely and honestly.  This is now available.