The Girl Who Chased the Moon: A Novel by Sarah Addison Allen

                It’s not always the case that I like every book an author writes.  So far, with Sarah Addison Allen, that is exactly what’s happening.  I have yet to come across a book of hers I don’t like.

                Emily Benedict doesn’t have anywhere else to go.  Her mother has died, and the only family she has left is a grandfather she knew nothing about growing up.  To live with her Grandpa Vance, a gentle giant, Emily must move to the town of Mullaby, North Carolina.  Just as with her grandfather, Emily doesn’t know anything about the town.  If she did, she might know and understand why her mother left it so many years before.

                Knowing why her mother left Mullaby would have been a big help for Emily as she tried to get acclimated to her new town.  That’s because her mother, Dulcie Shelby, left under a cloud. 

Dulcie did not treat people well as a teenager.  She then did something to one of the members of the prominent Coffey family that led to his suicide.  It is a legacy Dulcie created and is held against Emily today.

                One of the few people not holding Dulcie’s past against Emily is Julia Winterson.  Julia went to school with Dulcie.  While they certainly were not friends, she does not blame or look badly upon Emily for what her mother did.  Instead, Julia takes Emily under her wing and shows her around town.  It does not matter to Julia that others looks down upon Emily.  With her own teenage past, Julia knows what that feeling is like all too well.

                Another person who befriends Emily is Win Coffey.  Win is the nephew of Logan Coffey, the boy who killed himself when Dulcie was a teenager.  With this history, Win’s family is not happy he has befriended Emily.  Hs father is especially upset.  That is because Dulcie revealed a secret the Coffey family had been keeping hidden for generations.  A magical secret the Coffey family wants the town to forget.  Only, Win has other ideas.

                I think what I like so much about Ms. Allen’s books is the characters and the little bit of magic that’s always included in the story.  While none of the characters are perfect, no one’s completely evil either.

                Then there’s the magic.  It’s just something that happens in each town she writes about.  In addition to the Coffey family magic in this book, there is the changing of wallpaper in Emily’s room.  It changed on its own for Dulcie, and now it’s changing for Emily.  What instigates the wallpaper to change, I’m not sure.  It seems to be the feelings of the person living in the room, but there could be more to it.  Whatever the reason, it was always fun to read about when and how the wallpaper changed.