Latest / Galaxies and Goddesses: A Sci-Fi & Fantasy Bookcast / Dragons, Romantasy, and World Building: When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A Parker
Transcript
- Andrea: I’m Andrea. Elizabeth: And I'm Elizabeth. Andrea: Join us as we chat about sci-fi and fantasy books and beyond. Elizabeth: Looking for a little escape from reality? So are we. Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of sexual topics, explicit language, and spoilers for When the Moon Hatched. Listener discretion is advised. Andrea: Welcome to Galaxies and Goddesses! Elizabeth: On this week’s episode we’ll be discussing When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker. Andrea: We'll talk about the level of world building, unique fantasy elements, and what we think defines epic fantasy versus romantasy. Elizabeth: Chat about characters propelled the story forward and other similar books you might wanna check out if you haven't already. Andrea: We’ll try to keep it spoiler free to a point and then let you know when you may need to skip ahead. Let's get started! Andrea: What did you think when we picked this book, Elizabeth? What was your initial impression when I said I wanted to read this book for the podcast? Elizabeth: When I picked it up, my first thought was, “Jesus Christ. It's huge!” Andrea: It's huge. Elizabeth: So I actually, in the process of this, measured it. I also have a copy of War and Peace… Andrea: Okay. Elizabeth: And this book in its format that I picked up at the library, paperback, is two to three millimeters thicker than War and Peace. The copy of War and Peace that I have is 1400 pages long. There's something to do with the quality of the paper. Elizabeth: It's thicker paper, I suppose. Andrea: Well, and there's a glossary, there's, there's a lot of extra stuff. Elizabeth: There’s a lot of extra. Oh my gosh. There’s like [a] glossary at the front as well as pronunciation guide. It's a little over the top. I was just like, all right, here we go. Like characters, like whole creatures slash beings… Andrea: Ok. We’ll get into that. Elizabeth: It's a lot at the front. Elizabeth: I really did enjoy this book, but, yeah. Andrea: Okay. So I just have to be completely honest here. But being completely honest, I did not even read the back of the book until I finished the book, because I just had heard it’s a fantasy with romantasy elements… Elizabeth: It definitely is that. Andrea: That has dragons, and I was sold. You didn't need to read the, the Goodreads synopsis to me. I didn't need to read the back of the book. All I needed to know, to know that I wanted to read this book was that it had dragons and fae… Elizabeth: And romance and fantasy. Andrea: And romance and fantasy. Done. Sold! It fit in with our moon theme of when the moon hatched. Andrea: I don't think the back of the book description is, is that informative or helpful to the book. I don't know if that would convince somebody to read it or not. Elizabeth: Does it say anything about dragons on the… Andrea: It does not say anything about dragons on the back of the book. Elizabeth: Oh wow! Ok, I didn’t realize that but, totally. Elizabeth: I suppose I already knew it was about dragons, cause you told me it was about dragons. Andrea: No. Elizabeth: Wait, okay. Elizabeth: There's not the word dragon, but there is a dragon on the front and the back. But it could be a bird. Andrea: The Goodreads synopsis is a little bit different. It talks about, you know, “the creators did not expect their beloved dragons to sail skyward". So they mentioned dragons in the first sentence, that is in the Goodreads synopsis, and I think that's a big hook for a lot of readers. Andrea: Yeah, what what made me interested in the book initially was Instagram and BookTok. I read ACOTAR and Fourth Wing and this was lumped with that group and I was like, I think I'm gonna like this. And it's, it's related to the moon and this is perfect for our podcast. Andrea: So, I had really been looking forward to reading it. Elizabeth: It doesn’t have the word dragon on the back… Andrea: No. Elizabeth: Or the front! Elizabeth: That is fascinating. I didn't notice that, I guess 'cause I already knew. Wow. Elizabeth: Speaking of the other words that are in a book, you know, we've talked about publication pages. Okay. Let's talk about the stuff on the cover. Who writes that? Someone obviously designs it. Like which quotes from, which reviewers… Andrea: The blurb? Elizabeth: or authors? The blurbs. Andrea: Yeah. Elizabeth: That'll be at the very very front if they, you know, there might be a few on the cover, then a whole list on the first pages. Elizabeth: I always read every single one of those. Elizabeth: Did they do that on purpose? ‘Cuz maybe they knew the average person who's gonna read this book is not gonna base it off of what's written on the back. Andrea: I picked it because I'd heard it being considered romantasy and epic fantasy. I thought this might be a good time to talk about, what is romantasy, because that gets thrown around so much. Andrea: I looked up a couple articles about it. There was actually a really funny video, of this older white man interviewing bookstore owners about romantasy. Elizabeth: Oh really? Andrea: Interesting interviewer choice. Elizabeth: I wanna watch that now. Andrea: It was interesting to hear him asking questions about romantasy. Andrea: What defines romantasy is where the plot would fall apart if you remove the romance. Andrea: If you take away the love story from Lord of the Rings… Elizabeth: How would you know Andrea, you haven’t read it?! Andrea: I've seen the movies. If you take out their love story, then you still have a really strong story arc. But if you take out the love story in When the Moon Hatched it kind of doesn't work. Elizabeth: There is no story. Andrea: I think it does fall into the romantasy classification. Elizabeth: 100%. Andrea: But I think it is also epic fantasy. I think it can be both. Andrea: And so that's why I, I consider it like epic romantasy. Elizabeth: Sure. Andrea: I don't think that's a thing, but it should be. My argument is it should be a thing, because you could have romantasy that is just kind of low stakes, a cozy, cute, romantic story between fantastical creatures like Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. Elizabeth: Sure. Andrea: The thing that makes it epic is all of this world building and political alliances and traveling across like an entire world. Elizabeth: And I suppose then that with the Fourth Wing series and the ACOTAR series would fall into that as well. Elizabeth: I also think with epic stories they're often really long and … Andrea: Yes. Elizabeth: And might be part of a series as well. Elizabeth: And yeah. Obviously for the Fourth Wing series, the ACOTAR series, and the Moonfall series. Which they're gonna be three? Andrea: Yes. So… Elizabeth: Yeah, they're gonna be three. Andrea: I listened to an interview with Sarah A. Parker on a, another podcast earlier today. And she was saying that originally the book was going to be a duology, but the first book we're only reading the first half of the first book in the duology. So it's gonna be three books, “hopefully”. She said. Andrea: That she's gonna try to keep it contained to three books because she has a tendency to have really descriptive, detailed writing and she has to hold herself back a little bit to keep it at three books. It's like, wow, that's impressive. But she's currently working on the second book and I think she just, like, literally today on Instagram as we're recording this, mid-October. Andrea: She posted she sent a draft to her publisher for editing. Book two is called The Ballad of Falling Dragons, and that's expected to be published in February of 2026. Elizabeth: Huh. Andrea: So, yeah, that's not too far away. Andrea: And yeah, I do think this definitely counts as epic fantasy and romantasy. So yeah, we'll call that epic romantasy in our Galaxies and Goddesses world. Elizabeth: New niche genres. Andrea: Yes. Elizabeth: That’s cool. Andrea: I really enjoyed that aspect of the book, the epic world building. At some points it can be a bit much, because so much is new and so much is different from everything, but then there's things that are also the same and familiar, tropes that you might've read in other books before reading this. Andrea: But I was wondering, out of the unique words, were there any that stuck out to you that you liked or didn't like? Elizabeth: I mean, understanding the level of time that took kind of a minute as they're talking about these… Andrea: The cycles? Elizabeth: Yeah. Andrea: They had cycles and they had phases, right? a cycle was similar to a day… Elizabeth: Yeah. Andrea: And a phase is like a year. Elizabeth: Ok, so “aurora cycle” is what we think of as a day, like the rise and the fall of the aurora. What I didn't quite understand is like, does that mean that it's always dark? And then you just like have the aurora provides the light? Don't quite know. 'Cause then like aurora rise and aurora fall, like, when the aurora is dawning and the aurora is setting. It took a minute to wrap my head around that. Andrea: I thought of it as the beginning and end of a day. As the sun rises, you'd have an aurora, and as the sun sets you'd have an aurora. Andrea: And it’s sort of like a sunrise or a sunset. Elizabeth: It's gotta be dark to see the aurora. You really can't see the aurora during the day. Andrea: But this is a different world. Elizabeth: Also, I do not presume to be an astrophysicist, but I'm pretty sure that the aurora is created by electromagnetic waves put off by the sun. So there does have to be a sun in order to have an aurora. But like this never talks about sun. Andrea: It talks about The Burn. If you look at the map The Burn is closest to the sun. Andrea: And The Shade does not get as much sun. Elizabeth: So meaning that the planet doesn’t tilt? It’s just like fixed in space? Andrea: Tidally locked? Maybe, you know, only one side of the planet ever faces the sun and that's The Burn. Elizabeth: So that it's always the one axis, like the point, you know, like The Burn is always facing towards it. So it's just actively fixed in space at that tilt. Andrea: Yes. Elizabeth: We fix our day around the rise and fall of the sun. But if they always are awake at night and just fix their day around the rise in the fall of… wait, when would they sleep, right? Like we think of day as when the sun is out, but they would think of their day as when the aurora is out. Andrea: Right. Elizabeth: So it's dark. I didn't find myself thinking this deep as I was reading it. Andrea: That's like a unique concept, I'd say. The whole way that time works is a unique concept of time and an element of the world building. Elizabeth: Some of the other words, right, dae and slumber. Andrea: Instead of day and night. And then also like mah and pah, it’s like mom and dad. Elizabeth: I thought it was a little simple. Andrea: Mm-hmm. Elizabeth: You know like, you’re just spelling it differently? Come on. You could pick something better than that. What did you think? Andrea: I think it was interesting, because it highlighted this is a different place. It's like when you travel to another English speaking area. Or, you know, just even areas that have maybe accents or unique words. And they call it something different. And that it's not a different language, it's just a different, name for something. Andrea: They also use the term sleepsuite instead of bedroom. It's like traveling to England. They have different words for the same thing. It's a different culture. I liked that. Elizabeth: What about the nickname Moonbeam? Andrea: I did not like that. I’m sorry. Elizabeth: Neither did I. Nope. Nope. Andrea: I don't like the nickname “babe”, just personally. Sorry people. Elizabeth: It seems almost patronizing, Like “Babe”, “baby”. I mean, it's, it's also like kind of juvenile, moonbeam. Andrea: It's meant to be sweet. Moonbeam could be like saying, you're the light of my life. You're my moonbeam. But it wasn't my thing. Elizabeth: Kinda rubbed me the wrong way. Andrea: I did not like it. Elizabeth: Yeah. Andrea: I don't have a better alternative. I just don't like Moonbeam. Andrea: The level of world building sets it apart from an average book. I do feel like there's extra effort and thought that went into writing it. And so I appreciate it because of that. They even had a unique card game, scripi. Andrea: I'm glad that didn't happen until later on because you get used to more of the creatures that are mentioned and by the time you get to this idea of a card game, that, it reminded me of Magic, you know, Magic The Gathering. Where you have, different animals that can fight each other. Andrea: Or like Pokemon. Right? Elizabeth: I have played neither of those. Andrea: It seems like a trump taking game, sort of, they have creatures that fight each. Elizabeth: Yeah. There's world building within world building almost, right? Andrea: Mm-hmm. Elizabeth: There's a complicated rule set to this game, but you don't know, but it doesn't really matter. But yeah, it is, true. Yeah, that was a cool scene with that actually. Andrea: That reminded me of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss because he also has a game that's invented for the book called Tak, and it's a kind of a combination of chess and checkers. It's actually a game that they created in real life based on the book as sort of a, I think it might have been a Kickstarter, type thing, but turned it into a real game that you can actually play. Andrea: I think that'd be really fun to eventually play an actual game of scripi with somebody, or that, like some type of cosplay event. You get to go to a scripi tournament. I think that'd be fun. Andrea: There's not many books that go to that level of detail, so I just thought that was really impressive. Elizabeth: Yeah that’s true. Elizabeth: You know what goes into even more level of detail, Andrea? The Lord of the Rings. Andrea: Okay. Elizabeth: If you like the world building… Elizabeth: It's a pretty well built world. Oh my God. Andrea: What's embarrassing is, recently I bought some more bookshelves and I've been unpacking boxes of books from the garage. Andrea: Guess what I found Elizabeth? Elizabeth: A copy of The Lord of the Rings? Andrea: A box set of The Lord of the Rings. Yes, in English. I have no excuse. I have the books. They're on my shelf… Andrea: I'll get there eventually. Elizabeth: Oh, but I was gonna say is I have not read The Silmarillion. Andrea: I've heard of it. If I haven't read Lord of the Rings, I have not read The Silmarillion. It's a guide to the books? Elizabeth: Yeah. Elizabeth: Collection of myths and legends by JRR Tolkien, published posthumously by his son, details the creation of the world and the history of the first and second ages of Middle Earth. So it's like the mythology of, sort of, like the history of the world of The Lord of the Rings. Wait, have you read The Hobbit? Andrea: I have read The Hobbit. So I could put that feather in my cap, right? Andrea: Yes. Elizabeth: Yeah totally. The Lord of the Rings are fantastic. Can't wait to read them again, actually. Elizabeth: Anyway, yeah, that level of detail going into the world building for sure. You know, in reading like the glossary at the beginning and the map and the pronunciation guide and list of characters. And, and, and… at first it was like, okay, like not quite getting it, but then you don't necessarily have to like get it. 'Cause then you just start reading and it takes off from there. Elizabeth: It's definitely a very like, action packed, page turner of a book. And also the pages turn really fast. I think I read it in like five days. So even though it is actually, what did I say? Two to three millimeters thicker than War and Peace. I'm pretty sure I probably read War and Peace over the course of a month. So it definitely reads very quickly and you know, like it does look very daunting 'cause of how thick it is. Andrea: And I think the more time you spend sort of reading it and in that world, the more you tend to enjoy it, right? Elizabeth: Yeah. Andrea: The more you can picture these different foods and animals and it becomes really real, so I think that's cool. Andrea: We've talked about the setting, there is a plot and characters, so maybe we should talk about those too. Elizabeth: There is a lot of white space on the pages and so even though it's thick there isn't as much story as I thought there was gonna be. A lot does happen, but also it happens pretty quickly and, and you know, obviously like ends on a cliffhanger. I mean yes, there are characters, but there were a lot of tropes. Elizabeth: The love interest is this big, big huge guy, with a heart of gold. Andrea: So, yeah, it, it sets it up as these two main characters, an assassin female main character named Raeve and the male main character, Kaan Vaegor. It feels like there's a lot of these tropes. The female main character is an assassin and it's like, okay, Throne of Glass… Elizabeth: Totally. Andrea: By Sarah J Maas, she's also an assassin. Elizabeth: Not even necessarily just assassin, but even like trained in hand to hand combat. Andrea: Mm-hmm. Elizabeth: 'Cause that would then include like ACOTAR and Fourth Wing …this trope of the petite, smaller, but knows how to handle herself in a fight kind of trope. Andrea: The festivals with masks also reminded me of Calanmai in A Court of Thorns and Roses. You know, it's this other masked festival, that's associated with fertility, right? So, the Great Flurt where dragons mate, for the season, it’s fun. Andrea: It's the same idea in a new world. If I had read When the Moon Hatched before I read the other books, maybe I would've liked it more. So reading it, like it doesn't feel as new, but it's still enjoyable. Andrea: They're familiar tropes because they're things that are fun to read. Right? So.. Elizabeth: True. Andrea: It does make for a good story. Andrea: So I think there's a lot of elements that are similar to other books, but what sets it apart is that this main character is dealing with a lot of trauma. I mean, maybe they all deal with trauma in different ways, but… Elizabeth: Yeah. Andrea: She specifically deals with her trauma by dropping her memories into this frozen internal lake. Andrea: And when I think about this book, the frozen lake is the image I associate most with it. And it's not even a real place. It's like a mental space that she goes to. So I think that's what sets it apart and makes it interesting. At times I honestly didn't like the main character because she's so angry and just wants revenge. Andrea: And sometimes you just want her to slow down and chill out, but that's just not her character. Right? So… Elizabeth: Yeah. Andrea: What did you think about that? Elizabeth: Yeah, I found myself thinking that too, at times. Andrea: Her way of dealing with grief, and trauma just to bury her memories. Elizabeth: Yeah. Andrea: Another thing I liked about the frozen lake is that there's this implication that she's dropping her memories in the lake to avoid facing them, but at the same time, she's sort of feeding some other creature, lurking in the lake never explicitly said what that creature is. Andrea: I don't wanna give that away, but it's pretty obvious by the end of the book what that creature is. Would you agree Elizabeth? Elizabeth: Are you talking about The Other creature? Andrea: The Other creature that she's feeding… [Spoiler Alert!] Andrea: Okay. This is major spoilers. So my interpretation by the end of the book was she had bonded with her dragon, and that's what's in the frozen lake is the essence of the dragon. Andrea: Right? The dragon's soul basically is within her. Elizabeth: And the dragon is The Other? Andrea: Yes! Elizabeth: I don't think I put that together, but sure. Andrea: And the dragon is rage filled, has extra senses, likes the taste of human flesh and was like, I guess I can't bite off too many more fingers. Andrea: Right? So. Elizabeth: Yeah, no I might have missed that. Elizabeth: This would be a spoiler. I think I definitely, not early on, but definitely way before you actually find out in the book was like, oh, they totally have a kid together. Elizabeth: There's a child out there. Andrea: Well, when they were saying there's someone who’s more important that needs to meet her, it's like, okay, well who is that? Elizabeth: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Andrea: Yeah. Elizabeth: You could give it away if you flip to the end. ‘Cuz there’s like the family tree at the end and you can see there's a child coming off. Elizabeth: Funny thing, that I don't think is a trope, but is fascinating that this is now the third book that involved animate bird planes. Elizabeth: The Girl Who Drank the Moon Andrea: The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. The paper cranes that flew away. Elizabeth: Yeah. Andrea: Right. Elizabeth: Because she folded them all herself over time and then they all burst out. Andrea: She helped escape the tower that way. Right. Andrea: It was also in The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna. The girls the, young witches animate some paper birds. Elizabeth: That's right. Origami birds. Andrea: But this is the first one where the origami birds serve as email, basically, it’s like a fast way to send messages. Elizabeth: Yeah. How they send each other messages. You write your message paper fold it, and it activates it and goes and finds its person. I actually really liked that. Elizabeth: That was great. Yeah. That was a fun little aspect of the world. Andrea: She named it Nee. Elizabeth: Paper lark. That's what it is. Andrea: I think that's a pretty name too. Andrea: Paper lark sounds pretty. Elizabeth: Yeah. Andrea: Lark is a melodic bird name. On page 116, do you have the book on front of you? Andrea: So on page 116 of the paperback version that Elizabeth and I both have, there's an image of what the unfolded paper lark looks like and there's a message, with a statement and then a response and where it says, “I need you”. the response is, “No, you don’t". Raeve has named this paper lark Nee, like NEE. Andrea: And here's the spoilery-ish part. On the very last page, 690, “the lark flips onto its back bearing three small, perfectly scripted letters upon the underside of its belly, NEE” nay. So I think it's the same paper lark. Elizabeth: Because then the, NEE comes from…? Andrea: "The need." Andrea: Where it says, I need you. I think that's the only part that.. Elizabeth: Yeah, like the way it’s folded. Andrea: mm-hmm. Elizabeth: So when it's folded up, the only part you see is NEE out of need. Right? Andrea: Mm-hmm. Elizabeth: You didn't spoil… Andrea: You don't think that's a spoiler? Connecting the dots. Elizabeth: I mean you didn’t say who sent it to her. Andrea: True. Elizabeth: Well I guess it maybe spoils it a little bit, because she thinks that it’s not meant for her. Andrea: Right. Elizabeth: From the beginning of the book, she, she thinks it's not meant for her. And she thought it was just like mistakenly sort of attached itself to her and flies around whenever she takes it out. Andrea: But then the fact it gets back to the original sender, she realizes this person is alive. And then that's gonna play into book two, I bet. I guess. Andrea: And what I'm just noticing because I'm on the last page, in the family tree, there's a little diadem that’s on the female line. It's kind of interesting. I didn't notice that the first time I looked at it. Elizabeth: Nope. Andrea: So it is fun just like. Look back and, and talk about the book and find new things like little Easter eggs. Elizabeth: And that there is like this level of detail. Andrea: Yes. [Explicit Content] Andrea: This wasn't a world building thing, but unique word choice. Masticating is the word that stuck out to me in this book. Elizabeth: Haha, yeah. Andrea: Chewing masticating in this book. Andrea: It was mentioned. I think four times. Elizabeth: For sure. Elizabeth: You can also choose to include this if you want! But… Andrea: Oh, I know what you’re going to say. Elizabeth: Yeah, the word that stuck out to me was precum. It used the word precum twice. That is quite a choice, and I don't think I've ever seen that word written in a book before. Let alone twice. Andrea: I think I'd have to agree with you. Andrea: I don't think I've read it. Andrea: Well, and that was 300 pages in to get to the scene where they almost… Elizabeth: Part of the interesting aspects of books like this that have sex scenes in them. That's like about how long it usually takes, right? Like there has to be like the buildup to it and then there's usually like a few sex scenes. Elizabeth: So then there's gotta be like, you know, some time between them to build up to like the next one. Andrea: Then you find out they have their hidden love shack, and that's where it gets to Bang Town. Elizabeth: Oh my God. Elizabeth: Oh that’s right. Their hidden love shack. That's really funny. Multiple hidden love shacks in this book… the pseudo not having sex scene. Other kinds of sex scene. Elizabeth: The second one was also a separate hidden love shack. Elizabeth: Random little aside about this book. Elizabeth: What was also kind of funny in comparing this book to another book that we've read is the title When the Moon _____. Andrea: Yes. Elizabeth: So When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker, and When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi at times I found myself as I was thinking about the book, just in my own head, kind of like mixing up the titles for a second. Andrea: Two very different books. Elizabeth: Two very different books. In When the Moon Hits Your Eye the moon is made out of cheese. In When the Moon Hatched the moon is a dragon. Andrea: Calcified dragon. Andrea: That's something we didn't really talk about: how we pictured the dragons. The three types of dragons, species of dragons. Elizabeth: One for each of The Burn, The Fade, The Shade with their nesting ground. Andrea: There's the Moltenmaws that live in The Fade. There's the Moonplumes that are in The Shade and the Sabersythes from The Burn. Yes. So like the three types of dragons for the three environments basically. Elizabeth: Yeah. Elizabeth: How did I picture them? Elizabeth: I'm gonna admit I do not have the most, descriptive, active imagination. So when there's pictures in a book… Elizabeth: That’s how I picture them. So probably just like the picture at the beginning of each chapter. Elizabeth: Which they look very bird like. Andrea: Yes. Elizabeth: Avian dinosaur like. Andrea: The one drawn at the front of each chapter is more similar to the Moonplume, which has feathers, but I think others have scales. Elizabeth: They had feathers and the others didn’t. Andrea: Yeah, they were like a completely different type of anatomy. Andrea: Right? Elizabeth: Yeah. I suppose I didn't put as much imaginative thought into that. Andrea: For the Moonplumes I pictured something similar to the dragon and the Never Ending Story. The movie with the big white fluffy dragon. Elizabeth: Falcor?! Andrea: Falcor would've been a Moonplume. Elizabeth: White and furry. Andrea: What would you rate this book, Elizabeth? Elizabeth: I'd give it a four. There is oftentimes a lot that goes into enjoying a book, that are separate from the substance of the book. Elizabeth: A lot of it is who you are and what you like to read. And also when you're reading that book, at the time of your life, you know, like even reading the same book more than once, hits you in different ways because you're at different points in your life. Elizabeth: Right? And so I did really enjoy the book 'cause I found that even though it is, I suppose there's things that can be cliche about it. It was very engaging. It is a great escape. It does really really kind of pull you in. Andrea: What holds you back from giving it a five? Elizabeth: Tropes. Elizabeth: In doing this podcast, I'm realizing more and more how much I really do like science fiction and fantasy. I wouldn't necessarily have described myself as a huge science fiction and fantasy fan before starting this podcast, but the more we talk about it and the more books we read of it and then talk about it more, I do really enjoy it. And I actually have read a lot of science fiction and fantasy when I like, take a step back and think about all the books I've read in my life. But I don't overindulge in science fiction and fantasy, and I suppose with kind of like Romantasy as well, if it feels kind of old because it's cliche I'm not as interested in seeking out more of that. I feel like that's what holds me back. Without us having read it for this. I don't know that I would have sought out this book. Elizabeth: But I did really enjoy it. Andrea: I probably would've still sought out this book Elizabeth: Yes, it’s got dragons! Andrea: Yes. If instead something else hatched instead of moon, we wouldn't have read it for the podcast, but I still would've personally read it. Andrea: This also gets a four star, from me and kind of what held it back from getting five stars is just because I got a little annoyed with the main character. I thought her rage, was too much and it was a little bloody and gory for my personal taste. Andrea: I understand certain characters needed to be decapitated, but that is just not my cup of tea. Violence is necessary, but I didn't enjoy that gruesome aspect and that was such a central part of Raeve’s identity that was hard for me to stomach. Andrea: I love the world building. It's an interesting take on grief, and trauma, and mental health that you don't see as much in fantasy books. I liked the frozen visualization. There's also this idea that when you bury your feelings or trauma, it is gonna come back potentially. Andrea: And I think it's gonna come back, in book two. Elizabeth: Unfortunately, that’s the end of this week's episode. We've reached the end of another cosmic journey on Galaxies and Goddesses. Andrea: Don't worry. The adventure never really ends. there's always more stories to explore and let's be honest, more bookish, tangents for us to go on. Elizabeth: If you love today's episode, make sure to describe, leave, review, and share the magic. Andrea: Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll be talking about borrowing versus buying books. Elizabeth: Keep your mind fueled by the magic of stories. Andrea: And never stop chasing the world waiting for you between the pages. Thanks everyone!