The Five Daughters of the Moon by Leena Likitalo Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

The Crescent Empire teeters on the edge of a revolution, and the Five Daughters of the Moon are the ones to determine its future.

Alina, six, fears Gagargi Prataslav and his Great Thinking Machine. The gagargi claims that the machine can predict the future, but at a cost that no one seems to want to know.

Merile, eleven, cares only for her dogs, but she smells that something is afoul with the gagargi. By chance, she learns that the machine devours human souls for fuel, and yet no one believes her claim.

Sibilia, fifteen, has fallen in love for the first time in her life. She couldn't care less about the unrests spreading through the countryside. Or the rumors about the gagargi and his machine.

Elise, sixteen, follows the captain of her heart to orphanages and workhouses. But soon she realizes that the unhappiness amongst her people runs much deeper that anyone could have ever predicted.

And Celestia, twenty-two, who will be the empress one day. Lately, she's been drawn to the gagargi. But which one of them was the first to mention the idea of a coup?

Inspired by the 1917 Russian revolution and the last months of the Romanov sisters, The Five Daughters of the Moon is a beautifully crafted historical fantasy with elements of technology fuelled by evil magic.

There's a fascinating new trend in YA in which books that I would consider to be straight up fantasy are filed under the historical fiction genre because- get this- they're based off a real culture or country or period in history. The Walled City is one I can think of off the top of my head. Or basically all the new releases on the 2018 YA historical fiction releases lists. Usually, I avoid this subgenre because I'm not interested in fantasy. I've never been particularly captured by it, even when I was little, and with these new "historical fiction" novels I always wonder why I should read a book based on, let's say, the Austro-Hungarian Empire when I can read a book that actually is about the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I do, however, have one weakness.

Tsarist Russia.

Which is what The Five Daughters of the Moon is based on. More specifically, it's based on the Russian Revolution. It also replaces the Tsar with an Empress, and all the Grand Duchesses and the Tsarevich are turned into princesses, or Daughters of the Moon as the book dubs them. There's a little something lost in translation here, mostly because one of the biggest divisions between the Tsar and his people surrounded the Tsarevich, how long it took for one to come and also how he was hidden away from the people ever since his birth and subsequent hemophilia diagnosis. Also, Rasputin. Still, to Likitalo's credit she does give a new reason for a Rasputin-like character, Gargargi Prataslav, to enter the scene, as an advisor to the Empress. Prataslav has two roles here, actually, to replace Rasputin and, bafflingly, to replace Lenin. Now, it is not an unusual thing to villainize Rasputin, but one cannot deny that he would not have benefitted at all from the fall of the Romanov dynasty. He would have, after all, lost his main protectors, the Tsar and Tsaritsa. And the main problem with Rasputin anyway was that the other nobility didn't like him, not necessarily that the people hated him. But then again, Rasputin's an easy target to make a villain, given that he already looks like a drunk, STD ridden sorcerer. Lenin on the other hand, is often ignored by those who write books based off the Romanovs, strange given that he was the reason for their execution. I wonder why that is, as it's not like he doesn't have looks that can be caricatured anyway (he resembles a goat, or at least he does to me. A goat crossed with Leo DiCaprio). But okay, for the purposes of not confusing people, Prataslav is a strange hybrid of the two.

The Five Daughters have their obvious parallels to each Grand Duchess (and the Tsarevich, of course). Celestia is Olga, Elise is Tatiana, Sibilia is Marie, Merile is Anastasia, and Alina is Alexei. Alexei's hemophilia has been replaced by some form of mental illness, which does have some prophecy like abilities. Each Daughter had their own likes and dislikes, but I quickly grew tired of switching constantly between 6 points of view, and the chapters felt repetitive quickly.

I also wished we got more from the Crescent Empress and why exactly the people wanted to overthrow her besides focusing more on war than on the problems at home. I mean, the Russian Revolution was about that, but it was also about autocracy and how one unfit ruler at the exact wrong time can spell death to a centuries old system of government. The book lacked that.

So what does it do well? Well, I liked the writing. I mean, sure, there was a definite translated feel to it, but that didn't bother me as much as I thought it would and I liked it okay. I also really liked Likitalo's worldbuilding and how she paid homage to the time without directly ripping it off. I especially liked the bits about the souls and soul beads. 

And I did think that the Great Thinking Machine is a good, if a bit juvenile, metaphor for communism, especially to a layperson. While it would be a bit more fitting for a children's book, the idea of a machine that would make everyone equal but must be powered by human souls is, well, communism easily explained.

I mean, this isn't a perfect book in my eyes, as it does drag a bit and I never got too invested in the characters. But the world Likitalo created just captured my imagination, and it was short enough that I could read it easily. I liked it just fine.

7 out of 10