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"The Hunter's Moon" by O.R. Melling

Author:

O.R. Melling

Publisher:

Amulet Books, 2005

Reviewed by:

Holly Sanhuber, Muskego Public Library

When Gwen comes to Ireland to visit her cousin Findabhair, she finds her distant and suddenly adult. The growing unease she feels becomes a physical separation when Finn is abducted by the King of the Fairies. A much anticipated summer lark turns into a deadly game, for as in the words of the ballad of Tam Lin, the fairy folk must “pay a tiend to hell,” and Finn, or is it Gwen?- is slated as the sacrifice. Gwen must reach inside herself to find reserves of strength and daring. She has always felt inadequate next to incandescent Finn. Her constant surprise at her own chutzpah will make her seem real to teens who may be equally uncertain about their abilities. Readers cannot help but like the disparate cast of gutsy characters, and will learn to known them surprisingly well as the author paints them to life in a few dashing strokes. Even the faerie folk- coldly alien, immortal, implacable, and amoralcan be appreciated, if not wholly understood. Experienced readers of fantasy will enjoy the precarious sense of unreliable reality, and the shimmer of the flimsy and surreal barriers between places and times. Adventures and events come thick and fast- which is a good thing, as Gaelic words and phrases also abound. A lengthy glossary is appended, but it might be more useful to teen readers to have the many phrases defined as footnotes, or within the text. Wellknown in Canada a decade ago, this is the first of four in the “Chronicles of Faerie” to be published in the U.S. It has been “generously updated and expanded” for American audiences. The other volumes in the series are Summer King, Light-Bearer’s Daughter, and Book of Dreams.