When the Moon Was Ours

Author: Anna-Marie McLemore

When the Moon Was Ours follows two characters through a story that has multicultural elements and magical realism, but also has central LGBT themes—a transgender boy, the best friend he’s falling in love with, and both of them deciding how they want to define themselves. To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town. But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.

Goodreads

Interview with Anna-Marie McLemore 

1. Hi Anna and welcome to Next Page Please! To kick off this interview, let's start with an easy question. You've written magical realism before. How was writing the magical realism in When the Moon Was Ours different than the magical realism in The Weight of Feathers?

Thank you so much for having me! The magical realism in both stories emerged from both setting and character, but I think a major difference was how many characters shaped and interacted with the sense of the magical. The Weight of Feathers has a cast of two extended families and so many of them have complicated relationships with their own bloodlines. When the Moon Was Ours has a central cast of just eight main characters, and they all come up against each other in some way, which sparks a lot of the magical elements in the story.

2. One of the main characters, is transgender. What was it like writing about a transgender LGBT character and why do you think it's important to have more LGBTQ+ characters?

My husband is a transgender guy, so I felt a tremendous responsibility to honor his identity and his community. There are more and more wonderful books coming out with LGBTQ+ characters, which I’m thrilled to see, but I hope we continue to see more intersectional queer stories so all readers can find themselves on bookshelves.

3. If Sam and Miel were to meet the main characters of The Weight of Feathers, Lace and Cluck, who do you think would be instant best friends?

I think Sam and Cluck would get along right away, and I think Sam and Lace would too. Lace and Miel would take longer to warm up to each other, but would after a while. And Cluck and Miel have a lot in common that would make them friends, but it would take them a long time to trust each other enough to talk about it.

4. What books do you recommend for people who enjoy When the Moon Was Ours? 

I think the best way for me to answer that is to name some books that have inspired me. Laura Ruby’s Bone Gap and Nova Ren Suma’s The Walls Around Us for their beautiful blurring of reality and dream-like narrative. Aisha Saeed’s Written in the Stars for the gorgeous way she depicts characters’ complicated relationships with their families and family histories. Laura Resau’s books for how she shows the interaction of different cultural heritages.

5. Thanks so much Anna for being here today to answer some questions. Huge congrats on the publication of When the Moon Was Ours! To finish off this interview tell the world, what are you currently reading?

I’m currently reading a lot of books set in the 1920s as research for my story in the upcoming anthology The Radical Element. And then I have a TBR of recent YA releases that I’m so excited to get to!

Anna-Marie McLemore 

Anna-Marie McLemore was born in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, raised in the same town as the world's largest wisteria vine, and taught by her family to hear la llorona in the Santa Ana winds. Her debut novel THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS was a Junior Library Guild Selection, a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults book, and a finalist for the William C. Morris Debut Award. Her second novel, WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS, will be released on October 4, 2016, and WILD BEAUTY is forthcoming in 2017.

| Goodreads | Website | Twitter | Facebook |

So tell me: Have you read or heard of this book and what did you think of Anna-Marie's responses to my questions?