Helplessly drawn like moths to the light, two girls go missing in an evocative and gripping tale . . .
They called them the Moth Girls because they were attracted to the house. They were drawn to it. Or at least that is what is written in the newspapers that Mandy reads on the anniversary of when her two best friends went missing. Five years have passed since Petra and Tina were determined to explore the dilapidated house on Princess Street. But what started off as a dare ended with the two girls vanishing. As Mandy’s memories of the disappearance of her two friends are ignited once again, disturbing details will resurface in her mind.
I was given this book by Tori from The YA Circle because she is a generally fab person. As such, I feel honour bound to actually post a review of it! Also, I had totally forgotten I had a book blog for a while there and was mostly using Tumblr and Instagram. Whoops!
Moth Girls is set in London and swaps between present day and five years earlier when Petra and Tina went missing. The two periods are narrated by Mandy (present) and Petra (past) respectively. I have to say I enjoyed Petra’s sections a lot more. I felt they were a lot more compelling than what Mandy was getting up to five years later (mostly guilt and boy problems). It’s not all that surprising since Petra’s sections is where the actual events leading up to the disappearance occur. I spent a lot of time trying to preempt what was going to happen and was pleasantly surprised when I didn’t figure it all out.
The characterisations of the three girls and their families are really well done as well. Mandy, Tina and Petra are all very different girls and well developed characters. How they interact with each other is very believable which I loved. Even though we don’t get to see any of the events through Tina’s perspective she still stands up as well as Mandy and Petra.
Overall it was a solid book and I enjoyed it but it’s not likely to be one I’ll reread. I don’t read a lot of contemporary YA since I prefer fantasy/dystopia/sci fi etc but if that’s more your style you may love this.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Similar Reads: Risk by Fleur Ferris, We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.
Moth Girls was published in 2016 by Hot Key Books. ISBN: 9781471405112.
Mhairi Reads 