Moon at Nine is a quick and simple read: I read the last half of it in about 2 hours.
She tells a story that is not often heard, but needs to be shared a story that rings true, that is still happening now, that has been the harsh reality for many people. Ellis brings into the spotlight a culture and time period that is rarely talked about and tells a story of a girl whose voice would have been robbed from her. Readers are brought into this beautifully heartbreaking romance, blossoming in the middle of a political shift to a strict religious regime, where rights (especially the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals) are limited. These kinds of stories are just so important – an Iranian girl in the late 1980s discovering that she is in love with another girl, at a time and place where homosexuality is punishable by death. I knew that Moon at Nine was going to break my heart – I could just feel it.
Received a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Still, these stories need to be told.Īdmittedly, this book is aimed at young readers (probably "middle grade") so a younger reader may get more out of it than I did, but for a story about two Persian girls falling in love, I'd recommend the film Circumstance instead. I needed more development.įarrin and Sadira were likable and their story incredibly heartbreaking, despite the narratives gaps and flaws. Maybe that's the point, but I didn't work for me. Farrin and Sadira's idealism and steadfastness to their truth is admirable, but it also seemed incredibly naive. I'd expect they'd know to be more guarded-to know what exactly is at stake if they were to get caught-given the environment in which they lived and how smart they were and especially after Farrin's grandmother found them together.
They went from friends, to best friends, to "I love you" very quickly, and their openness/carelessness about their relationship seemed to be really inauthentic. It felt like I was reading snippets of moments that didn't exactly fit together, and the build up of the central relationship didn't really happen.
It's a compelling story: two teenage girls from different political and socioeconomic backgrounds who fall in love during the Iranian Revolution. Moon at Nine isn't bad, it just seems to lack some much-needed depth.
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