I would like to thank Laura from Unsung Stories for an advance copy o this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Unsung Stories

Published - 2’6

Price - £9.99 paperback ebook will be available from publisher soon

Mexico City, 1955. The painter Remedios Varo sits in her kitchen with her friend, the artist Leonora Carrington. Together they let their imaginations soar beyond their canvases to create new worlds. 

In the surreal landscape of her imagination, Varo’s creations take on a life and power of their own. A wheeled spirit of the earth kidnaps a baby star; a woman who is half owl draws herself a daughter; a juggler entrances a crowd of grey-cloaked men, a lion and a goat. The rules that govern this world bend and creak, old alliances break, and an impending apocalypse forges the most unlikely of friendships.

Rym Kechacha (Dark River, British Fantasy Awards finalist 2021) spins a wild fantasy from Varo’s dreamlike imaginings, a world in which the moon’s daughter holds the key to mankind’s fate. Populated by witches, sentient animals, and a lion made of leaves, To Catch a Moon is a bold and fearless ode to the power of Remedios Varo’s timeless paintings.

Worldbuilding is a popular topic in science fiction and fantasy. We tend to think of it as mechanical application of geography and science or perhaps a touch of various cultures being played with. But I think one key strand is does that world have it’s own cohesive logic and can a world that is clearly not based on the usual rules of our reality also work. In Rym Kechacha’s entrancing To Catch A Moon we get a very compelling yet unusual fantasy story set in a world that while is a little familiar to fanatsy fans also offers something far stranger and unique to enjoy.

In Mexico City 1960 the exiled painter Remedios Varo experiments with a concoction known for hallucinating abilities. That day she writes a strange contract defining a set of rules for a magical world which is then created and run its own history. There Thirteen spirits of the Earth keep the daughter of the moon prisoner while she writes the future history of the world. Instruction the Thirteen use to have their servants weave into a tapestry and make the events real in the world. But the daughter seeks escape and a plan for revenge is formed that will threaten everything.

This is a reading experience that I think people should be prepared to try. It’s not a retelling although it feels like an ancient story. It has aspects of various myths and familiar concepts abound but it’s feels at the same time wholly it’s own story. Filled with wondrous sights from the capture of the moon’s daughter in the heavens; a man transformed by a witch into a lion with leaves and strange bearded men who demand the world is ordered and coherent. It feels a story filled with symbolism and beauty that Kechacha’s gorgeous prose really makes sing.

The story has a unique flow like a river moving back and forth in time and explaining character’s beginning and histories as they all slowly meet for a final time. We travel with a company of entertainers (including our transformed Lion); meet various witches and watch the most love of a daughter of the moon and a woman who is also an owl. We have to accept this is how this world works on its own terms guided only by the strange clauses in that Contract made in another world.

The stakes initially appear minor just someone seeking freedom but as we find out the endgame of our lead character the reader’s sympathies are torn in multiple directions and this fairytale like world gets more somber and complex. Has the right thing happened?

As you’ll notice it is hard for me to explain this story. I’m not familiar with Varo’s art to say how this further inspired the story but what impressed me is just how complete and standing on its own two feet this story is. I think this lush evocative read will stay with me a long time just to feel like I’ve travelled in an author’s imagination on a dream like journey that at the same time has a magical logic all of its own that makes sense as the story progresses. Strange, beautiful, eerie and a treasure trove of gorgeous writing and imagery it’s a reminder that fantasy can also be about the fantastical and the wondrous. Well worth your time to explore!