MOONDUST

released OUT NOW! 320 pages | paperback/ebook

Author Gemma Fowler Publisher Chicken House

this debut novel from Gemma Fowler is set in a mining outpost on the Moon, where a substance named lumite has become the answer to all of Earth’s energy needs.

When Aggie was a kid, lumite caused an explosion that turned her eyes violet, making her a global symbol of peace. Now a teenager, Aggie wears contacts to hide her eyes and lives incognito on the lunar surface, hanging out with her friend Seb and generally being a klutz – until she bumps into a handsome young terrorist who might change everything she knows…

While the plot is largely by-the-numbers, the setting does make things more interesting – and Aggie’s fairly entertaining, despite being a standard YA-novel heroine (wracked with inadequacies despite having a Big Destiny, you know the drill). What’s disappointing, though, is that this is all you get: no further explorations of exactly what the lumite did to her; no sense that if this story had happened on Earth, it would have held your attention; no plot twists you can’t see coming a mile off (the book’s main reveal is telegraphed far too strongly, for starters). The pacing is energetic and there’s a certain sweetness about Fowler’s prose, but other than that, Moondust is a routine story taking place in an unusual location. Which means the only sparkle on display here is on the book’s pretty front cover. Jayne Nelson