Book Review | The Silver Moon Storybook #LoveBooksGroupTours #BlogTour

I’ve got a pretty magical book for you to have a look at today, before I let you in on my thoughts, here is what it’s about.

–

What darkness lies in the past of a little witch, cursed into the shape of a giant? Who will save a magical unicorn, imprisoned for generations in the castle of a tyrant? As the silver moon rises in the sky, an enormous clown and a powerful siren join a humble weaver and other enchanting characters in these haunting tales of illusion, discovery and love.

An exquisitely illustrated bedtime story for the age of #MeToo, The Silver Moon Storybook transforms themes of modern feminism into touching fables full of the magic and shadows of traditional fairy tales.

Buy here | Goodreads

–

After reading the blurb for this one I was really looking forward to getting a copy and when it arrived I was delighted because it’s so pretty and I was excited to see the illustrations that were between the covers too.

The Silver Moon Storybook is a collection of seven stories, reminiscent of tales that you are told as children but with messages that reflect the world that we are currently living in. Fear not though, they are subtle messages and still told through stories of weird and wonderful characters and fantastical places.

I liked that the characters dealt with a lot of different issues such as not seeing your own self-worth, standing up to bullies, expressing your emotions and more besides. I felt like the stories were kind of introducing that thought process at looking behind someone’s actions and questioning what would make someone act badly and how to counteract it.

Another thing that I thought really tied the book together was that there is some crossover between characters in the tales, I like that in short stories because it really allows you to delve that little bit deeper with the characters. Since this is also fantasy based it also helps to build the world that these stories inhabit.

The writing is simple and easy to follow but still vivid and manages to easily transport you into each tale, I always feel like the author has done a good job when they manage to capture so much with such few words. As an added bonus there are also lots of beautiful illustrations courtesy of Megan MacPhie, and even though I had a picture of everything in my mind, it was nice to see the interpretations of the stories. Also, I imagine if you have some younger readers they will really appreciate the wonderful drawings and that if you go to the author’s website then you can download and print them as colouring sheets.

With a collection of short stories it’s hard not to have some favourites and in this case the two I most enjoyed were The Unicorn, because who doesn’t love a unicorn, and The Sea Queen, because it made me feel pretty emotional at points.

This is a fantastic collection of stories with messages that are a brilliant reflection of modern dilemmas, I’m glad I have it on my shelf and that I can call upon it when the younger book lovers are at that stage of reading.

–

–

–

Elaine Gunn has been writing more or less constantly since she first picked up a pencil in primary school. Years of unpublished literary genius languish in handwritten journals, high school English portfolios, corporate banking reports and various awful pitch documents full of impeccably-written digital marketing jargon. Her first published work, The Silver Moon Storybook, is a collection of feminist fairy tales, written as an antidote to the passive princess culture that she became horribly aware of when her children started watching telly. Elaine is also a reiki practitioner and Dr. Hauschka esthetician; you can check out her website at http://somethinglovely.scot.

Twitter

–

Big thanks to Elaine Gunn and Love Books Group Tours for inviting me to be part of the tour.

–