Over the Moon: 11/09/19

Over the Moon by Natalie Lloyd is a middle grade fiction set in a mining town plagued by the Dust and economic depression. Twelve year old Mallie works as a maid in the next town over, trying to earn enough money to pay off her family's debt.

But Mallie's efforts aren't enough and can't be enough. The company that owns the mine is calling for an impossible amount of debt. Furthermore her employer doesn't pay her what she's owed, saying she's not up to the task. Mallie, as it happens was born with only one arm.

Hope comes to the mining town in the form of an advertisement looking for orphan boys who are willing to risk it all for untold riches. Mallie goes and despite the gendered ad, is allowed to participate.

Mallie and her brother, now forced to work in the mines, have been raised on the songs and tales of a time when there were still stars and there was still magic. Here knowledge of the folklore gives her what she needs to save her town and defeat the Dust.

Over the Moon would make a good thematic read-along for two other books: Dragonfell by Sarah Prineas (2019) and The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones (2019).

The novel, like the Prineas and Lloyd-Jones books, Over the Moon sits on the road narrative spectrum.

Although the advertisement mentions orphans, none of the respondents are orphans. They are all children with families affected by the mines. Many of them even work in the mines. As they are all struck by circumstances, they are collectively marginalized travelers (66).

Their destination are the mountains beyond their valley. More broadly, their destination is the salvation of their families and their town — both which is promised through their dangerous nighttime missions to the mountains. In terms of the road narrative spectrum, the mountains would be the wildlands (99).

Finally there is the route taken. It's done via an offroad method. Specifically it's done through flight. Their mode of transportation is the first clue that the magic hasn't actually gone away, that instead it's being kept away. While payment for what they collect is the stated goal, Mallie and the others realize that they've been given the clues and tools to understand what's really going on as well the means to stop it.

All together Over the Moon is the tale of marginalized travelers going to the wildlands via an offroad route.

Five stars

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