Review: The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein

What: The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein

Who: Faber and Faber Limited

When: 2010

How: Borrowed from library.

At an exclusive girls’ boarding school, a sixteen-year-old girl records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. The object of her obsession is her room-mate, Lucy Blake, and Lucy’s friendship with their new and disturbing classmate. Ernessa is a mysterious presence with pale skin and hypnotic eyes. Around her swirl dark secrets and a series of ominous disasters. As fear spreads through the school, fantasy and reality mingle into a waking nightmare of gothic menace, fuelled by the lusts and fears of adolescence.

And at the centre of the diary is the question that haunts all who read it: Is Ernessa really a vampire? Or is the narrator trapped in her own fevered imagination?

The Moth Diaries is presented in the form of a young girl’s diary during the year that she is age sixteen. She attends an all-girls boarding school, and is looking forward to the new year with her best friend; Lucy. When a new student arrives, Ernessa, the narrator is instantly jealous of the relationship that forms between Lucy and the newcomer. The narrator examines every detail of every interaction, to the point of obsession. She starts to believe that supernatural forces are at work, and that Lucy is in danger.

The Moth Diaries was so addictive. Whenever I stopped reading, I immediately wanted to pick it back up again and finish it.

As I was reading, I felt as if I was truly peeking in on the narrator’s thoughts. I felt as if I were reading a real girl’s diary. And I loved it.

I loved how intense her thoughts were, no matter what they were about. I didn’t even notice that the narrator’s name was never given. I was simply too absorbed in the story that she was weaving for me.

The narrator’s descriptions of people were some of my favourite parts of this novel, especially in regards to her friend who is obsessed with Friedrich Nietzsche. It made me laugh, and I could totally understand how the narrator felt when the girl started quoting things no one could understand.

Most of all, I felt a sort of pity towards the narrator. It didn’t overwhelm me, but I felt as if everyone either left her, or ignored her. It was a little heartbreaking, to be honest.

This book left a lot of things for the reader to question after the ending. And while I thought it would annoy me, it actually left me content. I hate it when the endings of books leave me hanging, but this was different.

I am still wondering whether this book is a paranormal book, or a book about mental health. It’s intriguing, and thought provoking. I like it.

I have seen the movie adaptation, and I really enjoyed it, too. I think it kept to the book’s essence.

I would strongly recommend this book to all those interested in the eerie.

© 2013, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.