The Girl Who Drank the Moon Themes

The Girl Who Drank the Moon follows a sorrowful city called the Protectorate, which every year sacrifices its youngest infant to a Witch who supposedly demands the child. In reality, the story of the evil, bloodthirsty Witch is nothing more than a story designed to subdue the populace—although, unbeknownst to the Elders (the governing body in the Protectorate), there is a witch named Xan who, though she has no idea why a parent abandons a…

The Girl Who Drank the Moon introduces the reader to a world in which storytelling of all sorts reigns supreme. In the universe the novel portrays, the world itself rose up out of a story told by its creator. Meanwhile, in the town known as the Protectorate, evil agents create and promote the narrative that there’s an evil witch who lives in the forest and demands a yearly sacrifice of an infant. This story allows…

One of the few things that Xan can infer from the past is that sorrow is dangerous, and that a person should hide their sorrow at all costs, though she can’t remember exactly why. The reader eventually comes to learn that this is because Sister Ignatia—formerly known as the Sorrow Eater—feeds on other people’s sorrow, and does whatever she can to create and harvest it like someone might harvest crops. While Sister Ignatia’s ability…