Review: Night of the Purple Moon

Night of the Purple Moon by Scott Cramer

Genre: YA

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Goodreads Says: The epidemic strikes only those who have passed through puberty.

Abby Leigh is looking forward to watching the moon turn purple. For months, astronomers have been predicting that Earth will pass through the tail of a comet. They say that people will see colorful sunsets and, best of all, a purple moon.

But nobody has predicted the lightning-fast epidemic that sweeps across the planet on the night of the purple moon. The comet brings space dust with it that contains germs that attack human hormones. Older teens and adults die within hours of exposure.

On a small island off the coast of Maine, Abby must help her brother and baby sister survive in this new world, but all the while she has a ticking time bomb inside of her -- adolescence.
WOW!

First thoughts… I can’t stop crying… Second thoughts… I can’t stop thinking of this book and the world Scott Cramer created.

A huge event is about to take place. Earth will find herself in the path of a visiting comet. Everyone is staying up to make sure that they get a glimpse of this comet! When it comes, no one is prepared to deal with the fact that it carried bacteria that kills off anyone going through or that has gone through puberty.

The book was written well. This world and its characters were strong. The fact that the author chose a comet was great because how many times have we seen comets? Many times and nothing crazy has ever happened. Although all of the characters were children, not once did I feel the book was too childish or that their voices were bratty or annoying. I appreciated the fact that we get to see what is happening via several of the character’s POV. I believe the wisest choice the author made was to choose the setting of an island off of Maine. It made everything that took place after the comet to be extremely believable. The children came together and shared in all of the responsibilities of making sure they would all survive. It wasn’t hard to believe that some of these kids had the skills they did. Belonging to such a small community where their parents’ occupations were hands on, such as fishing, farming, etc., it was only natural to teach their children those same skills and even more natural for those kids to step into those roles when all adults were gone. I will also mention at this point that this book could have totally gone all Lord of the Flies and didn’t. (Thank you!) However , that doesn’t mean it didn’t go Lord of the Flies elsewhere in the world. It totally could have.

This book was incredibly thought provoking and definitely played with my emotions. I went from scared to sad to really sad to anxious. As a mom and as an aunt who is heavily involved in the children’s lives, I couldn’t help but question over and over again if our kids would be ready to take care of themselves and each other if all of the adults were gone. I wondered if in fact any of us are ready for anything at all. Are we feeling too safe? How would they react if something were to happen? Where would they go? What would they do?

Talk about things that make you say hmm.

To say that I enjoyed this read is an understatement. I love books that stay with you and make you question things. I have talked this book up to everyone I know. I would love for everyone to read it and to share their thoughts. I’m really curious to know what others would think about this read because it is a book I think will provoke different thoughts and emotions from everyone that reads it. I don’t think one person will feel the same. Read and share, people. Read and share.

A copy was provided by the author.