Moon Honey

by Suzette Mayr, Aritha van Herk (Editor), Rudy Henry Wiebe (Editor)

A funny, sexy tale of love affairs, magical transformation, and happy endings. The question is, can love be relied on to save the day?

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Contemporary

213 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 1995

About the author

Suzette Mayr is the author of five novels including her most recent, Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall. Her fourth novel, Monoceros, won the ReLit Award and the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, was long-listed for the 2011 Giller Prize, nominated for a Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction and the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction, and included on The Globe and Mail’s 100 Best Books of 2011.

Her first novel, Moon Honey, was shortlisted for the Writers Guild of Alberta Best First Book and Best Novel prizes. The Widows, her second novel, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Canadian-Caribbean region.

Mayr is past president of the Writers' Guild of Alberta and teaches creative writing in the English Department at the University of Calgary where she was the 2002-2003 Markin-Flanagan writer-in-residence.

Reviews

[Brianna Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

She never misses. Strangest book I’ve ever read.

[Kennedy K · Rating 3 out of 5]

this confused me for some reason and the ending didn't feel like an ending at all. this book was pretty good though!

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Magical realism is not usually my favourite genre but foraying into this story was a delightful event. The pure wit and hilarity of the writing and characters made Moon Honey enjoyable. I loved the topics of race, sexuality and love coupled with the Metamorphoses (and attempts at) by the female characters.

[hiaa123 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty cool book. Strange and funny. I didn't realize it was written in the 90s, or that it was Canadian until I got a little bit in the book. I don't think we were getting many Black stories from the Canadian prairies, we probably still don't but what do I know. A lot of racial diversity and queerness as we dig into people's identities through transformations. Weird and wonderful book. Once Carmen turns Black, we kind of lose sight of her a little and I kept expecting her to come back to the forefront but she never does. I guess that's partly a commentary on the Black story but we get something nice from Mike and Renata at least. The afterword and interview at the end of the reprint helped contextualize the book for me.

[Peter B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A crazy roller coaster ride through several generations of quite unusual families. Loved it.

[Cassie]

I didn't like this book at all on the first read, but after some class discussions and discussions with friends I realized just how much is going on that you can easily miss if you just read through.

Plus some of the transformations are hillariously appropriate!

[Shinemoos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading it because it’s local. I have no idea what this is about after 11% in.