1.5 stars

Emily XR Pan’s debut, The Astonishing Color of After was one my top 5 books I read in 2019, so I’ve been desperately awaiting her sophomore novel ever since. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I could not get into this book.
An Arrow to the Moon is pitched as a contemporary fantasy Romeo and Juliet retelling with inspiration from Chinese mythology.
It sounds incredible, and I’m so disappointed that I wasn’t able to enjoy it.

AAttM is told in third person with the POV character shifting every chapter. There are 115 chapters in this 400 page book. 65% of the book is told from Hunter or Luna’s POV, while 40 chapters intersperced are told by Hunter’s brother, Cody, both teen’s respective parents, or the antagonist, Rodney Wong.
Now, I prefer short chapters, but when the POVs are switching every chapter and each chapter is an average of 3.5 pages, it’s hard to connect with the characters or the story. The constant change of POV was choppy, and none of the other character’s POVs were necessary for the story. They didn’t add anything to it.
There was just so much going on, it was hard to follow any one strand of plot. If every chapter except for Hunter and Luna’s were removed, the book would read virtually the same.
The writing itself was pretty, though it was a bit too flowery at times. I had a hard time getting into the heads of the characters and feeling what they were feeling, because I was so bogged down in the writing.
When it comes to plot, I’m not sure I could tell you what it was. Weird, magical things happened, we never fully learned why. Why did the ground crack? What was the “bad energy” seeping from those cracks? What was the point of the fireflies? The indigo kiss-spots? The only magical part of this book that made any sense was Hunter’s archery skills. The money, the wind, the fireflies, the cracks, the peaches, the rabbit, and everything else was given no explanation. Half the time I couldn’t tell what was “good” magic and what was “bad” magic, though I was given the impression it was supposed to be apparent.
For star crossed lovers, Luna and Hunter didn’t have much chemistry. Maybe this goes back to my inability to connect to them, but there have been plenty of books where I couldn’t connect to the characters but still enjoyed the apparent chemistry between them.
The entire subplot with Luna’s parents’ marriage—what was the point of that? It wasn’t resolved, it didn’t add anything to the plot. It felt awkwardly plunked into the narrative solely for the shock factor of Luna walking in on her mom in a… compromising position. I kept thinking it was somehow going to tie into some aspect of the magic, or the triad, or anything especially after we got a few chapters from Luna’s mom’s POV talking about the affair. But no. It was there, and then it gets lost in the mess of the plot.
The end, too, was wholly unsatisfying. I knew there wouldn’t be a happily ever after. It is a Romeo and Juliet retelling, after all. But there was no closure to any of the story lines. They float up into space, never able to touch. Eternally alone, just plucked out of their lives with no warning, and we know absolutely nothing about how they feel about it. If it were a sacrifice they willingly made to save the world/their families/each other, that would be one thing, but Luna just eats a rock because some fireflies told her to and floats to the moon with Hunter chasing behind.
No one ever has any reactions to the absolutely insane things that happen in this book, and it’s so boring. Yes, things happen, but they’re just glossed over. Never explained, never resolved, never felt. The book is resolved by simply erasing everyone’s memory, so there is no impact.
The whole book just lacks emotion or any kind of driving force to keep it interesting.
I wanted to enjoy this book, but I couldn’t. I was so bored while reading, it was physically painful, but I forced myself to finish it. I can’t say I’m glad that I did.
All in all, the biggest disappointment so far this year.