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We Hexed the Moon: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 9 Jun 26
Bunny
meets The Craft in this speculative debut about four best friends who perform a ritual on the moon in a last-ditch attempt to hold onto one another but are forced to reckon with the consequences.
It is the summer after high school graduation, and four island-grown best friends are about to be forced apart by their Plans for the Future. Rather than process the world of expectations bearing down on them or the secrets they’ve kept hidden even from one another, they perform a ritual on the moon in an impulsive fit of teen bravado.
They don’t expect it to actually work.
But suddenly the moon is gone from the sky and at their sleepover, and she’s not interested in going back where she came from. As the balmy August night unfolds, the girls scramble to find a human sacrifice to replace the moon before their world is plunged into chaos.
Equally tender and biting, We Hexed the Moon is coming-of-age at its best, cutting to the very quick of girlhood to reveal hilarious and brutally honest insights about friendship, gender, and desire.
It is the summer after high school graduation, and four island-grown best friends are about to be forced apart by their Plans for the Future. Rather than process the world of expectations bearing down on them or the secrets they’ve kept hidden even from one another, they perform a ritual on the moon in an impulsive fit of teen bravado.
They don’t expect it to actually work.
But suddenly the moon is gone from the sky and at their sleepover, and she’s not interested in going back where she came from. As the balmy August night unfolds, the girls scramble to find a human sacrifice to replace the moon before their world is plunged into chaos.
Equally tender and biting, We Hexed the Moon is coming-of-age at its best, cutting to the very quick of girlhood to reveal hilarious and brutally honest insights about friendship, gender, and desire.
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Expected publication June 9, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
October 28, 2025
Debut author Mollyhall Seeley’s unsettling, bittersweet coming-of-age piece has been described as Bunny meets The Craft. It was recommended for publication by Ali Smith as a result of her time selecting manuscripts for small publisher Weatherglass’s novella prize. Seeley’s narrative centres on four friends during what’s likely to be their last summer together - after finally finishing with school. Jen, Macey, Harding aka Helena and Goldie are so close it’s as if they bleed into each other. But they’re slowly recognising that they’ll soon be pulled apart, their complicated emotional reactions bound up with grief over the death of Goldie’s brother; and an awareness that they’re living in a state of permacrisis in which species are dying out and the world’s being ravaged by climate change. Together they decide to perform one last collective act, a desperate ritual that signals the possibility of an existence beyond the tarnished, mortal realm. Seeley’s characters were inspired by the notorious “baby” witches who, in 2020, claimed they were going to hex the moon. A boast that went viral, sparking unexpectedly widespread heated responses and debates. But where these real-life girls’ claims faded into obscurity, Seeley’s girls succeed. They somehow summon a deeply pissed-off moon down from the sky, a moon who then demands a sacrifice the friends could never have predicted.
Deliberately claustrophobic, Seeley’s novella often has a breathless intensity. It’s uneven but when it works it’s remarkably seductive: the imagery pleasing, the storytelling fluid. In part, Seeley offers up a zeitgeisty, microcosm of American society with its cultural clashes and frightening contradictions. She brings in references ranging from Elon Musk and the manosphere to ultra-conservative religious practices and their impact on individuals – Harding’s strict, Christian parents prevent her from fully embracing her queer identity. But, at the same time, Seeley constructs an intimate, searing portrait of the intricacies of girlhood, of gender and bonding - bonds which both liberate and constrain. I particularly liked the underlying message that in a reality in which the grotesque and the bizarre are increasingly becoming our everyday commonplace, the notion of magic seems almost mundane in comparison. Seeley’s direct, offbeat style reminded me a little of writers like Michelle Tea particularly her Black Wave. There are echoes too of retro, rites-of-passage stories like Mystic Pizza. Based in New York, Seeley’s currently working on a full-length version due out in 2026.
Rating: 3/3.5
Deliberately claustrophobic, Seeley’s novella often has a breathless intensity. It’s uneven but when it works it’s remarkably seductive: the imagery pleasing, the storytelling fluid. In part, Seeley offers up a zeitgeisty, microcosm of American society with its cultural clashes and frightening contradictions. She brings in references ranging from Elon Musk and the manosphere to ultra-conservative religious practices and their impact on individuals – Harding’s strict, Christian parents prevent her from fully embracing her queer identity. But, at the same time, Seeley constructs an intimate, searing portrait of the intricacies of girlhood, of gender and bonding - bonds which both liberate and constrain. I particularly liked the underlying message that in a reality in which the grotesque and the bizarre are increasingly becoming our everyday commonplace, the notion of magic seems almost mundane in comparison. Seeley’s direct, offbeat style reminded me a little of writers like Michelle Tea particularly her Black Wave. There are echoes too of retro, rites-of-passage stories like Mystic Pizza. Based in New York, Seeley’s currently working on a full-length version due out in 2026.
Rating: 3/3.5
April 19, 2025
oh my god oh my GOD OH MY GOD SO INCREDIBLE. like how can you write something so equally hilarious, snappy, pitch perfect-esque gen z but not in a cringe way, as it is gut wrenching, dealing with life, loss, grief, crisis, existentialism, friendship and family I AM FLOORED. like im genuinely speechless rn and will be recommending this book to anyone and EVERYONE
April 24, 2025
This is if that one good scene in Bodies Bodies Bodies was a full length novel
April 19, 2025
Shortlisted for the Weatherglass Novella Prize 2024
That's what being best friends felt like, that's what being a girl and having best friends felt like, cannibalism, all of you at the feast and of the feast, all of you taking parts of each other without even realizing it, becoming each other as you became yourself, jealous of the pieces of yourself the others took but proud of them too, proud that they'd been deemed worthy and edible, proud when you were closer to being fully consumed than anyone else but also furious that anyone else would dare to take any piece of you, the pieces you'd grown so painstakingly, that you'd put together from all the things you stole from everybody else, you were only you as long as nobody else was but of course everybody was everybody when you were best friends like this, there was no you, there was no them, there was only GoldieMaycieHardingJen, one person, one entity, breathing.
We Hexed the Moon by Mollyhall Seeley was shortlisted for the Weatherglass Novella Prize 2024, and one of three books from the shortlist, after the two joint winners Astraea and Aerth, which Weatherglass have gone on to publish.
Prize judge Ali Smith said of the book:
The hexing of the moon is, apparently, a reference to an odd social media story in 2020 on WitchTok (yes that's apparently a real sub-community) where some teenage witches attempted exactly that - see e.g. here.
The novel centres around four friends in the time between high school and university: Jen, highly organised and on her way to Yale; beautiful (and she knows it) Goldie, off to the College of Charleston and secretly sleeping with Jen's brother; Harding (first names Helen Ruth), a natural leader (taking her cue from the biblical Ruth) and from a strictly religious family, off to Liberty University; and Maycie, who has decided to skip college for now, Maycie and Harding beginning a relationship, oblivious to how obvious this is to the other two friends. It opens the day after their attempt to cast the curse, with Maycie climbing through Jen's window, to tell her, improbably that they seem to have succeeded and the moon has vanished from the sky:
We hexed the moon, Maycie says.
Her hair is plastered to her face & drips onto Jen's floor as she climbs gracelessly through the window. It has been raining for days, a monsoon, the wettest August on record. Everything has been the -est on record. Hottest, coldest, wettest, driest, climate officially changed. Jen has spent all summer lost in social media timelines talking about dwindling glaciers, water wars are coming, who cares, it's hopeless, we've fucked it, we deserve whatever comes next. People throwing soup on art, like that'll do anything, why are we more upset about art than the ruined planet, blah & etc. Twitter is crumbling, fittingly, into a timeline of what are no longer called Tweets, now called Xs. Twitter is dead & so is nature, probably. Jen's never having kids. That's what Jen's college application essay was about, framed through a lens of climate grief, 'the sense of loss that arises from experiencing or learning about environmental destruction or climate change. Jen's college counselor thought grief was a very powerful word. She said Why say grief and not sadness & Jen said Sadness is local, grief is cosmic. Global heating. Universal heating, maybe, who knows. So Jen's not having kids but she is going to Yale.
Jen at first doesn't belief here, but soon the internet is ablaze with speculation on what has happened to earth's satellite, and what is all means. And suddenly, the moon manifests in Jen's room, in the form of a young woman, not exactly happy.
The Moon looks like - a woman, sort of. Almost. It looks like a woman the way a shadow does: Jen knows, in her brain, that it is a woman, it has the shape of a woman, but a woman lit up from the inside with a thin, pale light.
Looking at her is somehow both soothing & unsettling, like when you take a selfie & the camera reverses your image. A camera filter that makes you old or young or a cartoon or Italian.
Holy shit you're The Moon, Maycie blubbers. Holy shit.
Holy shit. The Moon. Holy shit.
Hm, says The Moon, her voices a lilt, the lilt a shiver down Jen's neck. The Moon steps more fully into the room, running her fingertips along the edge of Jen's dresser, scaring up dust.
How interesting of you to use the word 'holy, now that I'm here in your bedroom, when yesterday I was - what was the phrase? - a fat old lady'.
This is Jen's bedroom, actually, Maycie tells The Moon, because Maycie is a spineless traitor. It's not her fault. Maycies emotional. That's why she needs Jen so much, to be logical, the voice of reason. So Jen lets it go even though it actually is very messed up.
I know that, I'm the fucking moon, The Moon snaps at her.
The Moon informs that their spell failed but she is annoyed that they attempted it, and it's final tipped her over the edge in terms of wanting to me the moon - so the four friends have twelve hours to find someone who will replace her as The Moon, while she will take over their body.
The publisher's blurb has this as 'The Secret History meets Stranger Things' which is an accurate description, but not one that would, were I not a Weatherglass subscriber, have me naturally reaching for the book - and I'd have preferred to have heard more from The Moon and less of the teenage-friendship angst.
That's what being best friends felt like, that's what being a girl and having best friends felt like, cannibalism, all of you at the feast and of the feast, all of you taking parts of each other without even realizing it, becoming each other as you became yourself, jealous of the pieces of yourself the others took but proud of them too, proud that they'd been deemed worthy and edible, proud when you were closer to being fully consumed than anyone else but also furious that anyone else would dare to take any piece of you, the pieces you'd grown so painstakingly, that you'd put together from all the things you stole from everybody else, you were only you as long as nobody else was but of course everybody was everybody when you were best friends like this, there was no you, there was no them, there was only GoldieMaycieHardingJen, one person, one entity, breathing.
We Hexed the Moon by Mollyhall Seeley was shortlisted for the Weatherglass Novella Prize 2024, and one of three books from the shortlist, after the two joint winners Astraea and Aerth, which Weatherglass have gone on to publish.
Prize judge Ali Smith said of the book:
“Some teenage girls have – yes – performed a spell and hexed the moon. Now the moon, smooth-skinned, street-smart, dryly witty, seductive, powerful beyond belief, is literally hanging out in one of their bedrooms.
Pitch Perfect gone cosmic: in stylish sleight of hand and with pleasurable bravado this pop song of a novella reveals the huge issues, importances, losses, survivals, impotence and potencies in the everyday existence of a group of best friends and their families. Full of young-adult wisdom, braiding dark and light together, it’s a charmer.”
The hexing of the moon is, apparently, a reference to an odd social media story in 2020 on WitchTok (yes that's apparently a real sub-community) where some teenage witches attempted exactly that - see e.g. here.
The novel centres around four friends in the time between high school and university: Jen, highly organised and on her way to Yale; beautiful (and she knows it) Goldie, off to the College of Charleston and secretly sleeping with Jen's brother; Harding (first names Helen Ruth), a natural leader (taking her cue from the biblical Ruth) and from a strictly religious family, off to Liberty University; and Maycie, who has decided to skip college for now, Maycie and Harding beginning a relationship, oblivious to how obvious this is to the other two friends. It opens the day after their attempt to cast the curse, with Maycie climbing through Jen's window, to tell her, improbably that they seem to have succeeded and the moon has vanished from the sky:
We hexed the moon, Maycie says.
Her hair is plastered to her face & drips onto Jen's floor as she climbs gracelessly through the window. It has been raining for days, a monsoon, the wettest August on record. Everything has been the -est on record. Hottest, coldest, wettest, driest, climate officially changed. Jen has spent all summer lost in social media timelines talking about dwindling glaciers, water wars are coming, who cares, it's hopeless, we've fucked it, we deserve whatever comes next. People throwing soup on art, like that'll do anything, why are we more upset about art than the ruined planet, blah & etc. Twitter is crumbling, fittingly, into a timeline of what are no longer called Tweets, now called Xs. Twitter is dead & so is nature, probably. Jen's never having kids. That's what Jen's college application essay was about, framed through a lens of climate grief, 'the sense of loss that arises from experiencing or learning about environmental destruction or climate change. Jen's college counselor thought grief was a very powerful word. She said Why say grief and not sadness & Jen said Sadness is local, grief is cosmic. Global heating. Universal heating, maybe, who knows. So Jen's not having kids but she is going to Yale.
Jen at first doesn't belief here, but soon the internet is ablaze with speculation on what has happened to earth's satellite, and what is all means. And suddenly, the moon manifests in Jen's room, in the form of a young woman, not exactly happy.
The Moon looks like - a woman, sort of. Almost. It looks like a woman the way a shadow does: Jen knows, in her brain, that it is a woman, it has the shape of a woman, but a woman lit up from the inside with a thin, pale light.
Looking at her is somehow both soothing & unsettling, like when you take a selfie & the camera reverses your image. A camera filter that makes you old or young or a cartoon or Italian.
Holy shit you're The Moon, Maycie blubbers. Holy shit.
Holy shit. The Moon. Holy shit.
Hm, says The Moon, her voices a lilt, the lilt a shiver down Jen's neck. The Moon steps more fully into the room, running her fingertips along the edge of Jen's dresser, scaring up dust.
How interesting of you to use the word 'holy, now that I'm here in your bedroom, when yesterday I was - what was the phrase? - a fat old lady'.
This is Jen's bedroom, actually, Maycie tells The Moon, because Maycie is a spineless traitor. It's not her fault. Maycies emotional. That's why she needs Jen so much, to be logical, the voice of reason. So Jen lets it go even though it actually is very messed up.
I know that, I'm the fucking moon, The Moon snaps at her.
The Moon informs that their spell failed but she is annoyed that they attempted it, and it's final tipped her over the edge in terms of wanting to me the moon - so the four friends have twelve hours to find someone who will replace her as The Moon, while she will take over their body.
The publisher's blurb has this as 'The Secret History meets Stranger Things' which is an accurate description, but not one that would, were I not a Weatherglass subscriber, have me naturally reaching for the book - and I'd have preferred to have heard more from The Moon and less of the teenage-friendship angst.
August 24, 2025
hm. i've got mixed feelings on this one. overall, i'm glad that i read it, and there was a lot in it that i enjoyed, but there were a few things keeping it from being one that i loved.
initially, i haaaaated the choice to have no quotation marks on dialogue. i just do nOT get why people do this. to me, it doesn't feel stylistic or unique, it just feels annoying. that feeling never went away, though i did get used to it as the novella went on. each of the four girls were interesting and i liked the way the different povs were handled. i think where this one fell a bit short for me was with the moon, and the ending. i wanted more moon!!!!! (i'm always going to want more moon in everything in the world always). i found the ending... both abrupt, sad, dissapointing, but also... i kinda got it and why it happened at the same time. i think there are a lot of good things in this one, but i think as a personal preference, i wanted a few different things from it then it was giving me.
initially, i haaaaated the choice to have no quotation marks on dialogue. i just do nOT get why people do this. to me, it doesn't feel stylistic or unique, it just feels annoying. that feeling never went away, though i did get used to it as the novella went on. each of the four girls were interesting and i liked the way the different povs were handled. i think where this one fell a bit short for me was with the moon, and the ending. i wanted more moon!!!!! (i'm always going to want more moon in everything in the world always). i found the ending... both abrupt, sad, dissapointing, but also... i kinda got it and why it happened at the same time. i think there are a lot of good things in this one, but i think as a personal preference, i wanted a few different things from it then it was giving me.
April 10, 2025
“They’d loved eachother so much it went cosmic”
I knew I was going to love this one just from the description. A group of girls, about to go off to college/travelling/gap year etc hex the moon one night. The next day the moon has disappeared from the sky and is stood in Jen’s bedroom, in the form of an abrasive woman.
Girlhood, female friendships, coming of age, sapphic and deals with grief, religion, sexuality and all the feelings that come with finishing high school and becoming an adult. All topics dealt with in this story as well as you know finding a body for the moon to take over! I really enjoyed this story, all 4 girls had interesting (and different) backgrounds and issues going on and all were realistic issue 17/18 year old girls would be having. All girl were both unlikeable and the sort of characters you can’t help but love.
I particularly loved the female friendship in this novel. I felt it perfectly captured how friendship feels in High school, how intense these friendships are and how female friendships do see you being so intertwined together. It felt like such an interesting way to touch on these topics, with the moon as an actual character. Honestly this is one you just have to read and I would really recommend. Such a unique and interesting way to do a coming of age story and potentially a new favourite of mine.
I knew I was going to love this one just from the description. A group of girls, about to go off to college/travelling/gap year etc hex the moon one night. The next day the moon has disappeared from the sky and is stood in Jen’s bedroom, in the form of an abrasive woman.
Girlhood, female friendships, coming of age, sapphic and deals with grief, religion, sexuality and all the feelings that come with finishing high school and becoming an adult. All topics dealt with in this story as well as you know finding a body for the moon to take over! I really enjoyed this story, all 4 girls had interesting (and different) backgrounds and issues going on and all were realistic issue 17/18 year old girls would be having. All girl were both unlikeable and the sort of characters you can’t help but love.
I particularly loved the female friendship in this novel. I felt it perfectly captured how friendship feels in High school, how intense these friendships are and how female friendships do see you being so intertwined together. It felt like such an interesting way to touch on these topics, with the moon as an actual character. Honestly this is one you just have to read and I would really recommend. Such a unique and interesting way to do a coming of age story and potentially a new favourite of mine.
April 13, 2025
I was always going to love this, but exceeded expectations. I will revisit this again.
July 2, 2025
Hot girl summer, more like oops we pissed off the moon and are now having an existential crisis but also am i gay girl summer. Just insane energy from the get go but i loved it.
May 22, 2025
"Whatever; if the Moon wants to die in the water wars that's her business." incredible, yes, excellent, love, obsessed. girlhood and change and climate grief and being in your 17-year-old mini-galaxy.
(ALSO THAT'S MY GIRL!!!!!!) smugly: I know the author actually
(ALSO THAT'S MY GIRL!!!!!!) smugly: I know the author actually
April 12, 2025
3.5
I really enjoyed this once the writing found its pace, but had to deduct some points for the waffle at the start
I really enjoyed this once the writing found its pace, but had to deduct some points for the waffle at the start
July 13, 2025
Fizzy, sweet & sour. I loved every single page.
January 16, 2026
loved this so much! finally someone who knows how to write teenage girls properly. all of the characters were a little cliche but that’s lowkey what being a teenage girl is and it worked so well. beautifully written, some moments were so silly and then some were so poignant i cried. just the sheer unwavering love you have for your friends when you’re a teenage girl, so beautiful.
January 4, 2026
I did not have huge expectations for this book tbh, I bought it because it seemed cool, I thought it was going to be a nice fun lil read to start my 2026. How wrong I was.
I loved it from the first page to the last. Maybe my obsession with the moon did not help, but I found the story funny, heavy, complex, fulfilling, existential, desperate, sad, refreshing. The Divine Feminine is the protagonist of the whole book in different facets. Most of all, I am obsessed over the overarching theme, the on thing that literally makes the world turn (or, I should say, The Moon?): friendship. I can hear you think, you are now thinking it's too cheesy and boring and nothing new, but you would be so far from the truth.
The book starts with this idea that "To be human is to be lonely", and with not even a total of 200 pages it proves itself wrong. You can feel lonely, and god all four of them felt lonely in their way. Goldie and Maycie and Harding and Jen. But they were never lonely. They were never alone. GoldieMaycieHardingJen. They always had each other, even if they did not see it all the time. They always hat the Moon, even if she had her phases and would disappear.
"They'd loved each other so much it went cosmic". And what a beautiful way to end the book. Yes I cried (are we surprised?).
And about Mollyhall Seeley: what a writer. She is funny, dark humorous, painful, realistic yet a dreamer. Even if she does not use speech quotation marks, I cannot wait to read more from her.
I have so much more to say about this book but I cannot put it into words rn. Will be back later.
I loved it from the first page to the last. Maybe my obsession with the moon did not help, but I found the story funny, heavy, complex, fulfilling, existential, desperate, sad, refreshing. The Divine Feminine is the protagonist of the whole book in different facets. Most of all, I am obsessed over the overarching theme, the on thing that literally makes the world turn (or, I should say, The Moon?): friendship. I can hear you think, you are now thinking it's too cheesy and boring and nothing new, but you would be so far from the truth.
The book starts with this idea that "To be human is to be lonely", and with not even a total of 200 pages it proves itself wrong. You can feel lonely, and god all four of them felt lonely in their way. Goldie and Maycie and Harding and Jen. But they were never lonely. They were never alone. GoldieMaycieHardingJen. They always had each other, even if they did not see it all the time. They always hat the Moon, even if she had her phases and would disappear.
"They'd loved each other so much it went cosmic". And what a beautiful way to end the book. Yes I cried (are we surprised?).
And about Mollyhall Seeley: what a writer. She is funny, dark humorous, painful, realistic yet a dreamer. Even if she does not use speech quotation marks, I cannot wait to read more from her.
I have so much more to say about this book but I cannot put it into words rn. Will be back later.
April 3, 2025
5/5
I could not imagine a more exciting, innovative, unique way to write about the girls you become friends with in girlhood.
This book is so intelligent, so witty, so ironic, so honest and simple, so entertaining. It’s one of those rare works you read when the author has taken the things you’ve felt so deeply and put them into words in the most eye-opening, poignant way, that you can’t stop feeling those things.
“GoldieMaycieHardingJen.” Yes, yes, yes, yes.
The way that girls and women become so entwined with one another is so beautiful. The writing style sets you at ease from the beginning, then swoops in near the end just when you’d fully relaxed and pulls the rug out from under your feet.
What you may think to be a fun, light read is not. It’s piercing and true.
Seeley uses the tone of a teenage girl so perfectly to catch the reader off guard; a brilliant, touching novella that brought me to tears and made me want to call my friends — my sisters!
We so desperately need more daring literature like this. We need to take chances and break rules and create the way we want to, not the way we’ve been told we must.
A new all time favorite x
I could not imagine a more exciting, innovative, unique way to write about the girls you become friends with in girlhood.
This book is so intelligent, so witty, so ironic, so honest and simple, so entertaining. It’s one of those rare works you read when the author has taken the things you’ve felt so deeply and put them into words in the most eye-opening, poignant way, that you can’t stop feeling those things.
“GoldieMaycieHardingJen.” Yes, yes, yes, yes.
The way that girls and women become so entwined with one another is so beautiful. The writing style sets you at ease from the beginning, then swoops in near the end just when you’d fully relaxed and pulls the rug out from under your feet.
What you may think to be a fun, light read is not. It’s piercing and true.
Seeley uses the tone of a teenage girl so perfectly to catch the reader off guard; a brilliant, touching novella that brought me to tears and made me want to call my friends — my sisters!
We so desperately need more daring literature like this. We need to take chances and break rules and create the way we want to, not the way we’ve been told we must.
A new all time favorite x
July 27, 2025
I loved this sm
July 13, 2025
I loveddddd this book - full of teenage angst, egocentrism and existentialism
Thankyou Luce 4 recommending
Thankyou Luce 4 recommending
July 17, 2025
Told over the course of about 48 hours, this novella flits between the previous and present day, told from the different perspectives of Maycie, Harding, Goldie and Jen. Their friend group goes back a long way. They are incredibly close (in different ways, no spoilers though) and they are together always, especially before their imminent separation as they head to different colleges.
I was impressed by the strong characterisation of each of the girls, especially given this was not a long book. Their friendship was the most charming and strongest element in the book, especially because they were often unlikeable – even to each other – but this didn't stop them from professing their love in different ways and vowing to always be together. Goldie's grief, Maycie's hidden strength, Harding's deep capacity for love despite struggling to acknowledge her sexuality, and Jen's infuriating tendency to be the smartest in an attempt to block the hurt she feels from her brother –all of this is bubbling beneath the surface and probably required a supernatural event to be released and dealt with. However, I wanted more time with them to make me more attached, to increase the stakes and for the ending to have had a greater impact on me.
Climate grief was present throughout the book, as they all dealt with increasingly erratic weather patterns and then proceed to freak out even more now that the moon is no longer in the sky and what that means for earth if they don't hurry up and put her back, but of course it isn't as easy as that.
Hexing the moon came from an argument surrounding faith; is God real, the concept of mother earth being satanic etcetera. The Moon arrives in corporeal form in Jen's bedroom because she has a demand to make of them, mostly for having the audacity to hex her in the first place, but also because she doesn't want to be the moon anymore. While no one other than the girls can see her, the entire world has noticed that the Moon has disappeared. People are freaking out online and organising end-of-the-world parties. This chaos allows for all sorts of insane behaviour to go unnoticed as they try and fix their cosmic mistake, and in amongst all of this you get time with each of the girls individually and learn the personal demons that are plaguing them and why they feel they should be the one to give themselves up to fix this mess.
Suspension of disbelief is required here, I think. Upon finishing I felt like I had participated in a feverish thought experiment, and I enjoyed the process. But as the dust settled I struggled to understand why the girl's ended up in the situation that they did. Also because it's my least favourite type of ending. I liked the idea of a group of friends having the collective power to do something (literally) earth-shaking and the lengths to which we will go to save people that we love. However, I felt that such an immense event deserved a greater aftermath, or at least one that was less distant and chaotic.
Quotes:
'Hottest, coldest, wettest, driest, climate officially changed.'
'...because Jen thought she was above things like having a crush on people or even having feelings at all.'
"Maycie. Where the fuck is the moon."
"WE HEXED IT," Maycie repeats, for what is now the third time. "SO IT DISAPPEARED."
'Cosmic autumn. Cosmic heating. Climate grief. Jen is possibly not going to Yale after all.'
'Jen can't stop looking at The Moon, even though it gives her vertigo.'
I was impressed by the strong characterisation of each of the girls, especially given this was not a long book. Their friendship was the most charming and strongest element in the book, especially because they were often unlikeable – even to each other – but this didn't stop them from professing their love in different ways and vowing to always be together. Goldie's grief, Maycie's hidden strength, Harding's deep capacity for love despite struggling to acknowledge her sexuality, and Jen's infuriating tendency to be the smartest in an attempt to block the hurt she feels from her brother –all of this is bubbling beneath the surface and probably required a supernatural event to be released and dealt with. However, I wanted more time with them to make me more attached, to increase the stakes and for the ending to have had a greater impact on me.
Climate grief was present throughout the book, as they all dealt with increasingly erratic weather patterns and then proceed to freak out even more now that the moon is no longer in the sky and what that means for earth if they don't hurry up and put her back, but of course it isn't as easy as that.
Hexing the moon came from an argument surrounding faith; is God real, the concept of mother earth being satanic etcetera. The Moon arrives in corporeal form in Jen's bedroom because she has a demand to make of them, mostly for having the audacity to hex her in the first place, but also because she doesn't want to be the moon anymore. While no one other than the girls can see her, the entire world has noticed that the Moon has disappeared. People are freaking out online and organising end-of-the-world parties. This chaos allows for all sorts of insane behaviour to go unnoticed as they try and fix their cosmic mistake, and in amongst all of this you get time with each of the girls individually and learn the personal demons that are plaguing them and why they feel they should be the one to give themselves up to fix this mess.
Suspension of disbelief is required here, I think. Upon finishing I felt like I had participated in a feverish thought experiment, and I enjoyed the process. But as the dust settled I struggled to understand why the girl's ended up in the situation that they did. Also because it's my least favourite type of ending. I liked the idea of a group of friends having the collective power to do something (literally) earth-shaking and the lengths to which we will go to save people that we love. However, I felt that such an immense event deserved a greater aftermath, or at least one that was less distant and chaotic.
Quotes:
'Hottest, coldest, wettest, driest, climate officially changed.'
'...because Jen thought she was above things like having a crush on people or even having feelings at all.'
"Maycie. Where the fuck is the moon."
"WE HEXED IT," Maycie repeats, for what is now the third time. "SO IT DISAPPEARED."
'Cosmic autumn. Cosmic heating. Climate grief. Jen is possibly not going to Yale after all.'
'Jen can't stop looking at The Moon, even though it gives her vertigo.'
December 24, 2025
Okay, so: Four teenage girls. Emotions running on fumes. College looming. Friendship already cracking. Naturally, the logical next step is to do a ritual that rips the moon out of the sky, as one does.
We Hexed the Moon is about a friend group imploding in real time and accidentally making it everyone else’s problem. The moon shows up in their lives as an angry, sarcastic, all-powerful young woman and basically says: congrats on the emotional spiral, now clean up your mess.
What absolutely worked for me is that this book is not here to be polite. It doesn’t do the whole “girlhood is magical and healing and we all grow from our mistakes” thing. These girls love each other deeply and are also kind of awful to each other. They’re jealous, defensive, cruel, loyal in the wrong ways, and convinced that whatever they’re doing right now doesn’t really count yet. Which, unfortunately, is how consequences are born.
The magic isn’t aspirational - it’s impulsive. It feels like a physical manifestation of teenage feelings hitting critical mass, and I loved how raw that felt. No smoothing the edges, no neat moral lesson, just: here is what happens when you don’t know who you are yet but your feelings are already strong enough to break things.
The voice is snarky, chaotic, genuinely funny, and then out of nowhere it’ll drop something sincere and you’re like wait, hold on, why am I feeling things??. I inhaled this. It’s short, punchy, and weird in a way that feels intentional rather than try-hard.
I’ve seen it described as The Secret History meets Stranger Things, or Pitch Perfect but make it cosmic, or even Bunny meets The Craft, and honestly? All of those comparisons just tell me the same thing: this book refuses to behave. It doesn’t sit nicely in one genre, it steals bits from several, shakes them together, and somehow lands on its feet.
My one real gripe: I wanted MORE. More moon. More fallout. More “so how is the world dealing with the fact that the moon is… walking around now?” The novella length makes everything sharp and fast, but I would’ve happily stayed longer in the wreckage. I also loved the idea of the moon as the literal embodiment of their mistake, I just wanted the consequences to spread wider instead of . Let it be messier! Let it be louder! (It probably says something about me that that's what I was craving reading this but.. oh well..)
Bottom line: funny, sharp, emotionally messy, and way more honest about girlhood than most witchy teen books dare to be. I finished it thinking “oh no, this author knows exactly what she’s doing,” which is both exciting and dangerous. I will be keeping an eye out for anything else this author puts out!
We Hexed the Moon is about a friend group imploding in real time and accidentally making it everyone else’s problem. The moon shows up in their lives as an angry, sarcastic, all-powerful young woman and basically says: congrats on the emotional spiral, now clean up your mess.
What absolutely worked for me is that this book is not here to be polite. It doesn’t do the whole “girlhood is magical and healing and we all grow from our mistakes” thing. These girls love each other deeply and are also kind of awful to each other. They’re jealous, defensive, cruel, loyal in the wrong ways, and convinced that whatever they’re doing right now doesn’t really count yet. Which, unfortunately, is how consequences are born.
The magic isn’t aspirational - it’s impulsive. It feels like a physical manifestation of teenage feelings hitting critical mass, and I loved how raw that felt. No smoothing the edges, no neat moral lesson, just: here is what happens when you don’t know who you are yet but your feelings are already strong enough to break things.
The voice is snarky, chaotic, genuinely funny, and then out of nowhere it’ll drop something sincere and you’re like wait, hold on, why am I feeling things??. I inhaled this. It’s short, punchy, and weird in a way that feels intentional rather than try-hard.
I’ve seen it described as The Secret History meets Stranger Things, or Pitch Perfect but make it cosmic, or even Bunny meets The Craft, and honestly? All of those comparisons just tell me the same thing: this book refuses to behave. It doesn’t sit nicely in one genre, it steals bits from several, shakes them together, and somehow lands on its feet.
My one real gripe: I wanted MORE. More moon. More fallout. More “so how is the world dealing with the fact that the moon is… walking around now?” The novella length makes everything sharp and fast, but I would’ve happily stayed longer in the wreckage. I also loved the idea of the moon as the literal embodiment of their mistake, I just wanted the consequences to spread wider instead of . Let it be messier! Let it be louder! (It probably says something about me that that's what I was craving reading this but.. oh well..)
Bottom line: funny, sharp, emotionally messy, and way more honest about girlhood than most witchy teen books dare to be. I finished it thinking “oh no, this author knows exactly what she’s doing,” which is both exciting and dangerous. I will be keeping an eye out for anything else this author puts out!
April 4, 2025
We Hexed the Moon is a sharp, witchy debut brimming with chaotic charm, dark humor, and tender moments of vulnerability. Mollyhall Seeley delivers a story that feels like eavesdropping on a coven of queer millennials trying to keep their lives (and magic) together in a world that’s equal parts mundane and mystical.
The book leans heavily into found family, queer joy, and emotional messiness, with characters who feel raw, real, and endearingly flawed. The magic system is more vibe-based than rule-bound, which might not be for everyone, but it fits the tone perfectly - organic, impulsive, and rooted in emotion. The plot is clever and fast-paced, with dialogue that feels authentic and often found myself actually laughing out loud.
There were a few moments where the plot lost a bit of momentum or the emotional stakes didn’t hit quite as hard as they could have, but overall, it was a heartfelt and refreshing take on modern witchcraft, identity, and friendship.
If you’re into chaotic sapphics, messy magic, and stories that blend real-world angst with supernatural flare, this one’s worth a read.
The book leans heavily into found family, queer joy, and emotional messiness, with characters who feel raw, real, and endearingly flawed. The magic system is more vibe-based than rule-bound, which might not be for everyone, but it fits the tone perfectly - organic, impulsive, and rooted in emotion. The plot is clever and fast-paced, with dialogue that feels authentic and often found myself actually laughing out loud.
There were a few moments where the plot lost a bit of momentum or the emotional stakes didn’t hit quite as hard as they could have, but overall, it was a heartfelt and refreshing take on modern witchcraft, identity, and friendship.
If you’re into chaotic sapphics, messy magic, and stories that blend real-world angst with supernatural flare, this one’s worth a read.
June 22, 2025
Okay - read this in a day because I was on a time crunch.
I liked it way more than I thought I would and got quite attached to these characters.
I would say the stakes didn’t feel high enough for a lot of it (my fwends mentioned this before I started reading and it stuck with me)- some big things happening that logistically needed some more how to say - impending doom..
I think it does work though seeing as the situation feels like a fun crazy backdrop to these four girls relationships to each other and themselves, rather than how to actually hex the moooon.
It reminded me of the film bodies bodies bodies (which I saw another review said too - felt validated) and taking on that wacky unserious~ness allowed me to ironically take the characters more seriously.
It threw me a bit off guard with the woke checking some of the characters did at the beginning as I wasn’t sure if it was the author trying to filter themselves or just the world they were building but I guess nowadays that is an internal dialogue someone would have?
When it started to flick between perspectives I was like oh no, it reminded me of the book blue sisters which I didn’t enjoy but for this book it really worked and i thought was a great example of how to feed the reader with character descriptions/development without just telling them - something BS didn’t do imo. Anyways those are my thoughts 🤝
I liked it way more than I thought I would and got quite attached to these characters.
I would say the stakes didn’t feel high enough for a lot of it (my fwends mentioned this before I started reading and it stuck with me)- some big things happening that logistically needed some more how to say - impending doom..
I think it does work though seeing as the situation feels like a fun crazy backdrop to these four girls relationships to each other and themselves, rather than how to actually hex the moooon.
It reminded me of the film bodies bodies bodies (which I saw another review said too - felt validated) and taking on that wacky unserious~ness allowed me to ironically take the characters more seriously.
It threw me a bit off guard with the woke checking some of the characters did at the beginning as I wasn’t sure if it was the author trying to filter themselves or just the world they were building but I guess nowadays that is an internal dialogue someone would have?
When it started to flick between perspectives I was like oh no, it reminded me of the book blue sisters which I didn’t enjoy but for this book it really worked and i thought was a great example of how to feed the reader with character descriptions/development without just telling them - something BS didn’t do imo. Anyways those are my thoughts 🤝
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 2, 2025
4.5 stars
Loved it so much! It's fast paced, and witty, and deep without trying too hard, and it speaks about current things without being cringe, and it just does everything right in my opinion. There were so many beautiful scenes and the writing was really good the way it switched between really well written prose and paragraphs written in very modern (almost slang) speech (though not in an obnoxious way). I hated that there are no quotation marks at the beginning, but I got used to it pretty fast and it actually didn't bother me that much. The ending was a bit odd, but I feel like there's a lot of room for interpretation in this book.
Loved it so much! It's fast paced, and witty, and deep without trying too hard, and it speaks about current things without being cringe, and it just does everything right in my opinion. There were so many beautiful scenes and the writing was really good the way it switched between really well written prose and paragraphs written in very modern (almost slang) speech (though not in an obnoxious way). I hated that there are no quotation marks at the beginning, but I got used to it pretty fast and it actually didn't bother me that much. The ending was a bit odd, but I feel like there's a lot of room for interpretation in this book.
September 28, 2025
Let me be very clear that I’m biased here as I know the author and frankly was never going to give anything less than 5 stars.
That being said, I found this novella to be a beautiful read and a tender look at the complexity of teenage girl friendships and the break (dramatized here) at the end of high school. A fast read and delightfully witchy, it’s a perfect fall read. The characters are rich and loved and fleshy and delicious. Look, sometimes you just hex the moon for funsies and now you have to do some crime that results in 7 hours of intense character development and introspection.
That being said, I found this novella to be a beautiful read and a tender look at the complexity of teenage girl friendships and the break (dramatized here) at the end of high school. A fast read and delightfully witchy, it’s a perfect fall read. The characters are rich and loved and fleshy and delicious. Look, sometimes you just hex the moon for funsies and now you have to do some crime that results in 7 hours of intense character development and introspection.
July 2, 2025
This was one of the best things I’ve read this year. The back of the back described it as being reminiscent of “The Secret History” which is what drew me in, and I have to say I agree.
It gave some really interesting views on female friendships and relationships that really resonated with me.
“You couldn’t ever get your girlhood back because it never existed as something that was yours, it always belonged to the people in bed with you, a shared experiment, a creature you only raised to slaughter with your own two hands.”
Genius.
It gave some really interesting views on female friendships and relationships that really resonated with me.
“You couldn’t ever get your girlhood back because it never existed as something that was yours, it always belonged to the people in bed with you, a shared experiment, a creature you only raised to slaughter with your own two hands.”
Genius.
July 11, 2025
unfortunately once a book mentions twitter and snapchat i genuinely cannot fathom giving it a rating higher than two no matter how much better it may get… i did enjoy this book, but the cringe parts outweigh the sometimes great writing (the lesbians get 4 stars though)
September 9, 2025
first 5-star-er in a while. this was great?? esp as i picked it up on a whim. did modern gen z girlypops justice in a way that i actually couldn’t believe. so fun, so quietly unsettling. if it isn’t clear, i loved this, raced through it.
April 30, 2025
the virgin suicides meets salt slow. perfect perfect perfect.
May 5, 2025
I loved everything about this book. Just brilliant.
June 7, 2025
This book was the perfect amount of strange and weird
June 22, 2025
Overall a really good book but just very slow to get started and get to the point. But towards halfway I began really enjoying the concept and the direction it was headed.
October 4, 2025
i get it
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