MOTH is the unique name belonging to our young heroine whose place in the world is constantly changing. Amber McBride is a heralded poet. MOTH is her first foray into a young, adult novel. McBride's writing is a marvel. Born into a loving family in NY, Moth's life is shattered while driving with her family. "When the car split in half like a candy bar and we (Mom & Dad & brother & I fell onto the pavement like sticky filling, we all made it to the hospital." From the hospital Moth follows her Aunt Jack back to her home in VA where she begins her senior year of high school amongst strangers. Everyone fails to acknowledge her. We ache for Moth's lonely, melancholy existence. She tells us, "My wild heart didn't think it could die. So I stayed & punished myself for living." A new male student, Sani, joins the classroom. The 'crimped blonde hair girls' all clamor around Sani who ignores them but looks directly at Moth. "He sees me, he can see me." Moth flutters around the light inside Sani's home. She witnesses his stepdad's brutality, his mother's refusal to intervene and her insistence Sani keep taking his meds. Sani decides to leave. Sani finds Moth at her Aunt Jacks and they venture across country, returning to Sani's home on the reservation where he was raised. The connection between these two artistic souls, Sani a gifted musician, Moth a dancer with plans to attend Juilliard are woven together with gossamer longings, binding them into their own cocoon. Moth says, "I want the universe to stop tempting me with so much life." Sani's father is a renown healer of the Navajo people. Moth's family descends from enslaved Africans. Not being permitted to practice their own spiritual traditions and having Christianity forced upon them, Hoodoo grew into magical & spiritual traditions from a melding of West African heritage and Christianity. Moth's grandfather imparted to her ancestral worship and sacred knowledge of herbs and plants. Both Moth and Sani learn from each other as they clinging to each other. This coming of age romance that resonates in a celestial aura. "Kissing Sani feels like, witnessing a blue sunset on Mars...As natural as the gray wolf moving the moon across the sky...Like keeping company with the mouths of mermaids." The haunting beauty of McBridge's prose is fervent and mournful. "It turns out when you step out of a cocoon, you can step out less alive but light enough to fly. It turns out there is enough magic & love in the universe."
