The Girl Who Drank the Moon

The Girl Who Drank the Moon is a 2016 fantasy novel for middle school readers by American author Kelly Barnhill. The story follows a young girl named Luna, who is accidentally enmagicked as a baby. As Luna grows, she struggles to recover important things she has lost: her memories, her mother, and her magic. With rich, lyrical language and gentle humor, Barnhill creates a fairytale-like world very different from ours, but one that faces similar challenges. Characters learn poignant lessons about the nature of love, family, and sorrow while discovering how to unlock their memories and open their hearts. They also experience the effects of tyranny and understand first-hand the consequences of repressing knowledge. The Girl Who Drank the Moon garnered wide critical acclaim, receiving starred reviews from School Library Journal, Kirkus, and Publisher’s Weekly, and winning the Newbery Medal in 2017. Barnhill's other popular novels include middle grade fantasy, The Ogress and the Orphans (2022), and her adult novel, When Women Were Dragons (2022).

Plot Summary

While the majority of The Girl Who Drank the Moon is told in the third-person omniscient perspective, the narrative is interspersed with stories related by first-person narrators. The novel opens with one of these tales. A parent explains to a curious child that on the yearly Day of Sacrifice, the people of the Protectorate are compelled to give an infant to the evil Witch or else she will destroy them all. The novel then switches to third person.

The Protectorate is a cloudy, foggy, gloomy town located between a fertile, life-giving bog and a forest filled with dangers thanks to a restless underground volcano. It is the Day of Sacrifice in the Protectorate, and Grand Elder Gherland prepares to preside over the annual baby offering. Gherland is the head of the Council of Elders, the Protectorate’s ruling body. Supported by the learned Sisters of the Star and their elite soldiers, Gherland maintains the power imbalance between the cowed, impoverished citizens and the powerful and wealthy Elders. Gherland and the Elders know there is no such thing as an evil Witch in the wood: The yearly sacrifice, although unpleasant, is designed to keep the citizens sorrowful and submissive, and keep the Elders in power.

Thirteen-year-old Antain is Gherland’s too-curious nephew. Kind, thoughtful, and a skilled woodworker, Antain is an Elder-in-Training and is not privy to the truth about the Witch. He goes with the Elders to collect the year’s baby and is shocked when, for the first time ever, a mother refuses to give up her child. Clutching her daughter, the mother swings wildly from the ceiling rafters of her home, screaming her defiance. She has long black hair and a crescent moon birthmark on her forehead. Gherland declares that grief has made her mad, and a force of Sisters of the Star subdue her and take her infant. The mother is imprisoned in the Sisters’ Tower. Gherland, Antain, and the Elders leave the baby in the forest. The entire episode scars Antain’s heart, making him feel guilty and ashamed. He thinks there must be a way to stop the sacrifices.

Kind, gentle, elderly Xan is a good Witch. She lives with her friends, Glerk, a large, learned swamp monster; and Fyrian, a joyful, Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Each year Xan travels to the Protectorate and saves the babies that are left in the woods. She feeds them starlight and takes them to loving families in the Free Cities on the other side of the woods. These “Star Children” grow up happy and successful. This year Xan is entranced by the baby’s deep, dark eyes and her crescent-moon birthmark. Instead of feeding the infant starlight, Xan accidentally feeds her moonlight. Moonlight “enmagics” the girl, filling her with powerful magic. Xan knows that the baby is now too dangerous for a regular family to raise, so she names the baby Luna and becomes her grandmother.

Xan, Glerk, and Fyrian lovingly raise Luna but worry about her magic powers. She continues to pull magic from the moon. Glerk warns that Luna’s magic will erupt someday, and she will be dangerous. Xan pretends that everything will be fine. But when Luna turns five and her magic emerges, Xan realizes something must be done: Luna is a danger to herself and others. Xan seeks answers at the ruins of the old Castle where she was raised.

As a little girl 500 years ago, Xan was found in the woods and brought to the Castle of magicians. The magicians enmagicked Xan. One relished in her sorrow, and another, old Zosimos, became her guardian. Zosimos and Fyrian’s mother, a Simply Enormous Dragon, sacrificed their lives to stop the volcano from erupting. Xan perfects a spell that cocoons Luna’s magic inside her until she turns 13, at which time her magic will emerge, and Xan will die. But the spell has other dire consequences: Luna cannot hear or see anything to do with magic.

In the Protectorate, Antain is haunted by the memory of the mother on the ceiling and the crying baby. Antain visits Sister Ignatia, the head Sister of the Sisters of the Star. Sister Ignatia is tall, strong, fierce, and tiger-like, and a Sorrow Eater. Sister Ignatia started the stories of the evil Witch to keep the Protectorate under an incapacitating cloud of sorrow, which she feeds on.

Antain visits the mother, now known as the madwoman, in her cell. She has developed magical skills, and her cell is filled with hundreds of folded paper birds that magically come to life and attack Antain, leaving his face irreparably scarred. Antain quits his position with the Elders and becomes a successful woodworker. Years later he finds and marries Ethyne, a girl he had shyly admired in school. He questions the Elders’ authority.

Luna grows up to be an intelligent, accomplished 12-year-old, but she is frustrated because she has images and shadows of memories in her mind that she knows are true, but she cannot grasp them. Luna sketches the images from her mind. Luna experiences terrible headaches and a sensation that something in her head is counting down the time. As more snippets of memories return, Luna’s magic begins to trickle out.

The madwoman knows in her heart that her daughter lives. She draws maps of the path through the dangerous forest and includes them in her paper birds, which she launches from her cell window. Antain finds one and understands that it gives directions to the Witch. Now, Antain and Ethyne have a new baby boy who is slated to be the next sacrifice. Antain follows the map into the woods, determined to save his child and stop the sacrifices by killing the Witch.

Gherland and Sister Ignatia secretly agree that Antain must be stopped, otherwise he could upset their carefully constructed supremacy in the Protectorate. Sister Ignatia follows Antain into the woods to kill him. The madwoman, knowing how dangerous Sister Ignatia is, also follows, escaping her cell and flying away on the backs of her paper birds. The birds take the madwoman to Luna and Xan’s home. No one is there, but the madwoman sees Luna’s drawings and realizes that her daughter truly does live. She discovers a pair of Seven League Boots and avoids an attack by Sister Ignatia, who also wants the boots. The madwoman strikes out to find Luna; Sister Ignatia follows swiftly behind.

Xan, her magic waning, transforms into a swallow to rescue the yearly baby. Antain accidentally breaks her wing and carefully takes her along on his quest. Luna is anxious about Xan’s deteriorating health. Accompanied by her friend the crow, Luna uses a map she drew to follow Xan. Worried about Xan and Luna, Glerk and Fyrian trail them through the increasingly dangerous woods. Fyrian realizes the volcano is about to erupt again. Fyrian grows huge. As the full moon rises, it fills Luna with magic, and at last she understands and embraces who and what she is.

Luna and the crow encounter Antain, who believes Luna is the evil Witch. He prepares to slit her throat, but the madwoman and her flock of paper birds arrive. Terrified of the birds that hurt him so badly before, Antain drops the knife. Luna recognizes that Xan is the swallow and transforms her back to human shape. Luna discovers that the madwoman is her mother. Explanations about the yearly sacrifice follow, and Xan chastises herself for never exploring why babies were left in the woods.

Sister Ignatia arrives and tries unsuccessfully to make Antain sorrowful. Xan tells her that all the babies are alive and happy. Luna magically looks inside Sister Ignatia and sees a pearl where her heart should be: She has walled off her own sorrowful memories. Luna cracks the pearl, and Sister Ignatia’s sorrow spills out. Fyrian and Glerk appear, and although Sister Ignatia caused the death of Fyrian’s mother, Fyrian resists taking revenge.

Back in the Protectorate, Ethyne has initiated an insurgence. She tells the truth about Sister Ignatia to the people, releases all the prisoners in the Tower, and opens the Sisters’ extensive library to all. Mothers of sacrificed babies suddenly have visions of their children growing and becoming adults. The clouds of sorrow dissipate, and the sun comes out.

Luna uses her magic to shield the Protectorate from the volcanic eruption. In the aftermath, the citizens elect a new Council and put the old Elders in jail. Gherland refuses to apologize for his crimes and remains there the rest of his life. Luna and her mother move in with Antain and Ethyne, where Luna works to help heal her mother’s madness. Luna discovers that her mother’s name is Adara. Luna travels to the Free Cities, telling the Star Children about their true origins.

Xan’s health fails quickly, as does Sister Ignatia’s. Both are made comfortable in the Tower hospital. The Star Children return to the Protectorate, where they joyfully meet their birth families. Xan passes away listening to the sound of their happy celebration. Glerk uses starlight to awaken Xan, and together they walk into the Bog. Luna becomes the good Witch in the woods.