daughter of the moon goddess by sue lynn tan | book review

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Series: The Celestial Kingdom #1

Published on January 11, 2022 by Harper Voyager

Genres: Fantasy, Mythology

Pages: 503

Format: Kindle

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★★★★★

A captivating and romantic debut epic fantasy inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang’e, in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm.

Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.

Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor’s son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince.

To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess begins an enchanting duology which weaves ancient Chinese mythology into a sweeping adventure of immortals and magic, of loss and sacrifice—where love vies with honor, dreams are fraught with betrayal, and hope emerges triumphant.

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Where do I even begin with this review? I went into this expecting it to be a YA romantasy story, but it’s so much more of that.

The story is divided into three parts, and each part felt like an entire book to me because of how action-packed they are. To put it a bit in perspective, the average audiobook is around 8-10 hours, but this one was 15 hours. This sense of length might have also been because this book follows the main character through many years of her life, and we get to watch her grow and develop and overcome many obstacles.

Some scars are carved into our bones - a part of who we are, shaping what we become.

Part I follows Xingyin, daughter of the Chinese Moon Goddess Chang’e, who was banished to the moon by the Celestial Emperor. The Celestial Emperor doesn’t know that Chang’e has a daughter, which causes Xingyin to flee from her home in danger when she’s almost discovered.

Hiding her identity, she begins her new life as a lowly servant for a snotty noblewoman, before getting the opportunity to train as the Celestial Prince’s attendant. During this training she learns that everyone possesses magic, a talent that she was forced to suppress while living on the moon. The magic in this world reminded me a lot of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” as peoples’ magical abilities relate heavily to the four elements: water, air, fire, and earth. Immortals have magic, while mortals do not.

The rest of this part explores the budding relationship between Xingyin and Prince Liwei, as well as Xingyin’s own character development.

Part II reminded me a bit of “Mulan” and follows Xingyin as she becomes a skilled archer in the Celestial army and rises in the ranks, becoming well-known and revered. We meet more characters, such as royals from the other parts of the kingdom, and we get to see the relationship between Xingyin and a new potential love interest develop.

For the sake of not revealing too much, I won’t dive deeper into what happens in Part III.

I had always thought life was a road, twisting and turning with the vagaries of fate. Luck and opportunity, gifts beyond our control. As I gazed across the endless night, it dawned on me then, that our paths were forged from the choices we made. Whether to reach for an opportunity or to let it pass by. To be swept up with changed or to hold your ground.

I thought the writing was beautiful throughout, mixing poetic prose with intense action and 3D characters (though I would definitely venture to say that this is a plot-driven story rather than character-driven).

At no point did I fully know where Tan was going in her book, because there were so many micro plot points and subplots that I didn’t know what the overarching plot was. (In hindsight, Xingyin's one true goal was to find a way to release her mother from her moon prison.) While I say this story is plot-driven, I would also say that Xingyin’s character development is one of the bigger focuses throughout this novel because the reader can see her grow through the challenges she experiences.

There’s deception, sabotage, manipulation, slight love triangle vibes, many cultural references and references to the Legend of Chang’e, and so much more.

Now with all that said, you might be thinking to yourself, “Gracyn, if there’s so much you loved about this book, why did you only give it 4 stars?”

For me, there was just a little too much going on here. While I enjoyed reading the book, it didn’t elicit many strong emotions from me. Sure, I was shocked during the plot twists, and I felt happy at the conclusion, but I wasn’t laughing, crying, or throwing up, which all go into whether I grant a book 5 stars.

I would certainly recommend this book to people if I thought that they’d be into the book, but I wouldn’t gush or geek about it to my friends.

For avid lovers of mythological retellings and those who would like to delve more into East Asian, specifically Chinese, mythology, this is definitely a good place to start.