I’ve read many genres of book in my time and have experienced many different lives, but never has the type of emotion that I felt while reading Moondance ever been drummed up in me.
Happy married and high-flying political lobbyist Cat decides that, at 38, it is finally time to have a baby. To have the baby both her and husband Dom desire, Cat must first endure grueling fertility treatment. To quote the blurb: “Bittersweet, at times funny, and always emotionally raw, this is by far the most moving and honest novel you’ll ever read about IVF and its impact on a marriage”.
As much as I enjoyed Moondance in the end, I have to admit that I wasn’t immediately pulled in by the topic. At 28 years of age, I’ve only really begun considering the idea of children, and IVF is something that never crossed my mind. Soon, some part deep inside me began connecting with Cat. I felt her longing and frustration at wanting, but not having a baby, those feelings of fear about how a relationship can change, and anger at the expectation that a woman must choose between a career and a family. Needless to say, I began to feel every emotion with her.
The story is very much from a woman’s perspective. While we do get glimpses of how Dom is feeling, Moondance never really dives too deep into his character. What the reader mostly knows about Dom is what is learned from flashback scenes to the beginning of their relationship. Equally, Cat is very much the main character in the story and what we learn about the others (Dom, best friend Jackie), is almost exclusively in relation to her relationship with them. One blurb of the book promised that Cat would unravel some family secrets but this didn’t happen. For me, there were no big revelations which connected to Cat’s current struggle.
However, I do feel like there was one main supporting character for Cat: IVF. This is a topic I didn’t know much about, in fact, very little, before reading Moondance. Eventually, my knowledge grew so much so that it became almost like a persona to me; I knew its dark and good sides, the positive vs. the negative. It became almost like a savior and a devil all at once.
Overall, I would say don’t let the topic defer you from the book. Maybe it is not one for the men, but as a woman, you will feel a connection whether you have had a child or not, gone through IVF or not. It certainly wasn’t the type of book I would normally pick up but, at the end, I just couldn’t put it down.
Moondance was sent to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review.
Joyful Antidotes 