The Star and the Strange Moon by Constance Sayers

​This was an easy choice for me. I requested it the moment I saw it on Netgalley. I loved Ladies of the Secret Circus, and In love books about movies, particularly scary ones.
So I was unprepared for the uneven slog this novel turned out to be in reading. And subsequently finished it with very mixed impressions. Now I’m going to try to sort them for this review.
1.Way too long. Read long too, which is never great.
2.Way too many chicklit / women’s fiction vibes. Like WAY too many. No surer way to tank the book for me. The romance is tolerable, but so much of G’s perspective was just tediously girly. Which is …yeah, she’s only 22, but still…
3.Wildly overburdened with plot elements. The author had clearly gone in something like high concept via kitchen sink approach. That’s actually the plus and the minus of the novel at the same time. Overall, once you finished it and consider it in retrospect, it’s rather impressive. But while you’re in it, it often comes across as messy.
I mean, historical fiction, movie making, romance, demons, vampires, time travel, alternate realties, fantasy, magic, realism, magic realism …whew.
Kudos to the author for pulling it off but it was an effort to get there in the end.
 
Overall, an interesting read. Took me a long time (for me) to get through. And definitely the sort of book I appreciate more with the rearview mirror perspective than I did while reading it. Conceptually fascinating. Strange, indeed, but likely to find an audience. Thanks Netgalley.