The Blue Moth Motel

by Olivia Robinson

A haunting and evocative exploration of the meaning of family and home.

Ingrid and Norah have an unconventional upbringing—growing up in a motel, raised by their mother and her female partner. The girls’ grandmother, Ada, who owns the Blue Moth, has always kept them at a distance. But when she buys a piano for the motel, that all changes. Years later in England, training to be a soloist, Ingrid loses her voice and must decide what to do. She hears from Norah, who’s reviving a party that began during their childhood to celebrate the arrival of mysterious and elusive blue moths. The Blue Moth Motel deals with family dynamics, grief, and the concept of home.

Genres: Fiction, Canada

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2021

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blue Moth Motel on Prince Edward Island, Canada and is so named due to a folk tale about beautiful blue moths swarming the beach at a particular time of year. It’s a fairy tale and the blue moths do not appear during the course of the book.

Sisters Norah and Ingrid grow up at the Blue Moth Motel owned by their grandmother Ada who told them the story of the blue moths. Their mother Laurel and her partner Elena become the owners of the motel when Ada dies.

Ingrid moves away to England to pursue a singing career.

The book alternates between PEI filling in the story of the sisters, their family and the Blue Moth Motel and short chapters of Ingrid’s life in Lewes England when she has lost her singing voice.

By the half way mark I found the book became a bit tedious as nothing much was happening, and as admirable as the writing may be it just rambled on.

The cover certainly is lovely and inviting.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way this book is written flows really nicely and it is so easy to read! It’s easy to get caught up in the story and just keep reading page after page. The story feels very personal, almost like a memoir. The chapters alternate between PEI and Lewes, the past and the present. I personally liked the sections in Lewes a bit more because they felt like small snapshots of Ingrids life without all the history and memory of the PEI chapters. Both tell an interesting story though!

If you’re looking for LGTBQ and feminist representation this book will not disappoint! I actually found it fascinating that there are next to no male characters, and the few who are mentioned don’t speak or interact with the main characters at all.

I can’t help but wonder if there’s some extra symbolism with the colour blue. It’s not just the motel and the moths, blue pops up in sweaters and dresses and coffee mugs all throughout the novel. At some points it almost feels like too much blue.

One thing I expected more of was some magical realism, especially with the legend of the blue moths. They mention a few characters being witches but nothing is really explained beyond that. I also found that there were a few too many cliches but that’s too be expected with the more personable style of writing.

Overall, I would recommend to anyone looking to read a new Canadian author, or anyone looking for a reflective piece about the meaning of family that’s not heteronormative!

[Brenton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written and evocative artistic piece of writing. Though it is clearly a Canadian work, it reminds me Virginia Woolf in some ways--a little bit like "Lighthouse," but almost like "Orlando" in its intimacy of internal detail connected to the textures of the world (not, obviously, in the key "change" that happens to Orlando). But it isn't Orlando with the great transformation in the middle, but like the two parts of Orlando working simultaneously until there is a single, whole character. It is a strong technique in terms of voice and narrative design.

[Haley Culin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the writing style and attention to detail! I just found this book was missing an excitement factor. I probably just read too many thrillers.

[Angela Gilroy Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Blue Moth Motel is a wonderful novel by this first time author. She has an incredible talent for description, inviting you to follow Ingrid’s personal journey of discovery. Interspersed with beautiful phrases and imagery, she encourages you to look at everyday situations from an entirely new light. Many young women will relate to the coming of age scenarios. Readers familiar with the Atlantic provinces will especially enjoy the nature and seashore references. Really looking forward to more from this promising young Canadian writer.

[Bob Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing! The descriptions are so vivid, it is as if you are there, smelling the sea air or the cold ocean on your feet. The memories of growing up will trigger shared experiences for all readers. Firstly this book is about family, growing up in a loving caring environment, and about siblings- shared emotions that often times don’t even need to be spoken. Whether you choose a life of adventure and excitement or content simplicity, you will always be shaped by all the wonderment you shared growing up, surrounded by a loving family, with all their quirks and inner challenges. Simply a splendid first novel by a very talented young author. I await her next novel with great anticipation.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderfully radiant novel about siblings, family, grief, and home.

I loved this one! About two sisters, Norah and Ingrid who come from an eccentric childhood raised in the Blue Moth Motel in PEI owned by their grandmother Ada and raised by their queer mother Laurel and her partner. When their grandmother passes away the Blue Moth (named after the mythical blue moths that come at a certain time of year) falls to Laurel to run and Ingrid moves away to pursue a singing career. The story flows back and forth between life in the Blue Moth and Ingrid's life in England.

This was such an evocative read! I loved the family dynamics so much and all the atmospheric elements, and the Canadian setting of course.

Thank you to @breakwaterbooks for sending me this book opinions are my own.

For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong

[Digitally Lit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ariela: The Blue Moth Motel is definitely an interesting read, I say that because it was written in a way you wouldn’t usually write. Dialogue not in direct quotations, and a book was written like someone was telling a story, with many flashbacks to the past. The main character is Ingrid, and she has a sister, Norah. Ingrid has moved out of the motel that they both grew up in, the Blue Moth Motel in PEI, to go to England. The book phases through a lot of what happened in the past and what’s happening in the future. I’d say most of the book is actually just stories from the past and Ingrid’s life before. I thought it was very sincere, very sweet, and very sentimental.

This is definitely a book that targets your emotions, nostalgia, and longing for home. Where you grew up and where you came from. Reading this book is peaceful and calm. Everything feels like a dream. It feels like you’re underwater when you’re reading this book. It feels strangely surreal. I love that feeling. I loved this book.

Official synopsis:

Ingrid and Norah have an unconventional upbringing—growing up in a motel, raised by their mother and her partner. The girls’ grandmother, Ada, who owns the Blue Moth, has always kept them at a distance. But when she buys a piano for the motel, that all changes. Years later in England, training to be a soloist, Ingrid loses her voice and must decide what to do. She hears from Norah, who’s reviving a party that began during their childhood to celebrate the arrival of mysterious and elusive blue moths. The Blue Moth Motel is a Haunting and evocative exploration of the meaning of family and home.

I recommend this book, and I hope you get a chance to check it out 🙂

[Julie Stuart · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it certainly “explores the meaning of family and home” I would not call this book either “haunting” or “evocative” as the blurb promises. The novel leans heavily on the setting of Prince Edward Island to create tone and engage the reader, and the author does bring that world to life with detail. The characters were interesting and unique without being dynamic; there were a few touching moments, but nothing was unpredictable. If the takeaway on ‘home’ is that it’s where your memories are, not just where you lay your head - well, nothing new to see here. If it’s that what your family leaves you may be a burden more than a blessing - well, it would have been nice to see this thread pulled at in the narrative.

I would have liked the author to have explored Ingrid’s voice (finding it, using it, the loss of it) in a deeper way, tying together the voice of the struggling singer and that of the finding-herself-small-town-girl. What does it mean to find your voice? To use it well? To have it taken from you? How do you heal and find it again? This metaphor had so much potential, but a lot was left unsaid. Instead, there was a strange inclusion of unnecessary detail, and an obvious attempt to include the colour blue whenever possible that was distracting. A sweet story, better suited to a YA reader. For a book written about home, it was nothing to write home about.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a dreamy book that tells of two sisters, Ingrid and Norah, growing up at an old motel, the Blue Moth Motel, on Prince Edward Island. Their lives are unusual, with their two mothers, Laurel and Elena, and their grandmother, Ada, who brings music into the girls' lives. It's a bit slow moving; I usually get impatient with coming-of-age stories, but the way it's written, with its details of mundane life, really captures the character of Prince Edward Island. The tale is told in alternating times: in 2013 from Ingrid's point of view in Lewes, UK, as she has lost her singing voice and thus her livelihood; and from 1990-2013 from a third-person point of view of the family in Prince Edward Island. It was an enjoyable immersion into an unconventional family that is loving and encouraging, and for once, not dysfunctional at all.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really lovely book.
A lyrical and mostly non romance teen book about family and constancy, gifts of talents lost or lived with and caring. The Blue Moth in the title is something lovely and temporary around which a family ritual is built. There is a joyfulness about the presence of art, colour, singing, music, and mostly growth over time. Passions growing and fading to later reappear. Life in all its muddled madness. There is even a confident, loving lesbian couple who flourishes just under the radar of acceptance. It is hard not to love the prickly piano playing Grandma who holds the failing motel as a steady, sustaining presence in their young lives. Can anything of this ephemeral life be salvaged during this life stage of loss and transition?

[Greg Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the sort of book I’d normally read, but it was beautifully written and an engaging story. Bonus point for referencing “Fairyland” that was reminiscent of childhood trips and whose current iteration is visible from my front deck.

[J. Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 big stars for the prose, 3 for everything else. I would definitely read other works by this author.

[Lorna D · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so beautifully written, it is poetic.

[Matthew Ledrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very smart and vividly descriptive. Reads like a fairy tale. I won't lie and call it perfect... it has some of the quirks that plague a lot of NL fiction that comes out of the same school, but the prose is magnificent and good enough to still make it one of the year's best.