My Thoughts On: Chasing the Moon
Chasing the Moon is the latest novel from author A. Lee Martinez, the guy who wrote Gil's All Fright Diner (which I requested for Yuletide last year and still think deserves fic. And a sequel). It's the story of an apocalyse and the woman who sort of stumbles into stopping it - not an entirely surprising plot for Martinez, but why not use it when it worked for him before? It's not like the specifics of the plot aren't different each time.
Anyway, I have liked every one of Martinez's books that I've read so far and Chasing the Moon wasn't an exception when I picked it up a couple months ago. I loved following Diana's descent into the supernatural world and how Martinez has the mundane and the supernatural coexist; much like his earlier book Monster he has regular people be not quite able to acknowledge the weird things around them, even when those weird things are right THERE.
When I first read the book I wasn't sure if Diana was actually the protagonist, because it looked like she might end up getting eaten. It did seem pretty inevitable. The fact that she managed to release Vom without being immediately devoured got me interested in her pretty quickly; that she continued to manage Vom with little trouble throughout the novel and in fact kept accumulating more monsters into her care showed that she was a BAMF and by the end of it all I thought she was awesome.
While the plot of the novel is interesting enough and I truly did enjoy seeing Calvin's life on Earth (all the details about how dull and stressful extra-dimensional entities find life existing on our plane was right up my alley as a story point) what I really enjoyed in this novel was the weirdness of the supernatural community. In particular I loved the apartment and all the people in it. West taking Diana on side adventures and otherwise involving her in his job (his job of CONSTANTLY KEEPING THE UNIVERSE ON TRACK) was one of my favourite aspects of the story and I could have enjoyed the book if it was mostly just about that, no apocalyptic cult required.
Of course, without the apocalyptic cult then there would be no Sharon. I was gleeful when Sharon and Diana ran into each other and made friends, because 1) it tied the two plots together to make one big plot, and 2) we get two ladies interacting! Thank you, Martinez, for not completely failing on that score. I know you don't usually fail the Bechdel Test, but I am in constant fear that you will.
Anyway.
I liked that Sharon and Diana continued to be friends after the main chunk of the plot was over and the apocalypse had done its thing. To be honest, I got a SERIOUS femslash vibe from the last chapter and honestly thought that the date mentioned was going to be a Sharon/Diana romantic dinner. Alas, it was not to be, but I still fully support it. Oooor a sequel where they are best buds and navigate the supernatural world together? Martinez? Please? Come on, man, you have to give us a sequel to something *puppy eyes*