Review: We Hexed the Moon by Mollyhall Seeley
We Hexed the Moon is as Weird, Funny, and Tender as Its Title Promises
There is a particular strain of contemporary fiction that delights in making readers ask, "What on earth (LOL) am I reading?" before rewarding them with something unexpectedly heartfelt. We Hexed the Moon by Mollyhall Seeley belongs squarely in that tradition. It's bizarre, darkly funny, occasionally unsettling, and underneath all of that, a remarkably sincere novel about female friendship.
The premise alone should tell you whether you're in or out: four inseparable friends attempt to hex the moon into becoming cheese. Instead, the moon descends to Earth as a woman who announces she no longer wants the job. The novel never apologizes for its absurdity, and that's exactly what makes it work.
Seeley's writing feels fearless. It reminded me of the kind of films that initially strike audiences as strange or unsettling before eventually earning classic status because no one else would have dared make them. The pacing is brisk, the humor lands effortlessly, and the story constantly finds new ways to surprise without sacrificing its emotional core.
Goldie, whose real name is Golden, quickly became one of my favorite literary characters in recent memory. She's messy, impulsive, and unapologetically herself. Lesser novels often bend over backward to justify every morally questionable decision a woman makes. Seeley doesn't. Goldie acts because she wants to, and the novel trusts readers to sit with that instead of asking them to forgive her. One of the book's strongest moments comes when Goldie reflects on men and how easily they can be tempted. It isn't written as manipulation or triumph. It reads as someone who understands the rules of the game and has simply decided to stop pretending otherwise.
What impressed me most, however, was how fully realized every character felt. Each woman arrives with her own worldview, history, and emotional baggage. I wanted to spend time with all of them, listening to their stories as much as watching the plot unfold.
The imagery is equally memorable. The moon herself is wonderfully strange, with sharkskin legs and a melodic voice that sounds like four people speaking at once. Those surreal details never feel random. They contribute to a world where stealing a dead body, practicing a ritual sacrifice on a dummy, or sitting naked in a bathtub trying to reverse a hex somehow feels as natural as sharing drinks with your closest friends.
That balance is the novel's greatest accomplishment. One moment it reads like an offbeat sitcom built around four chaotic women. The next, it's quietly examining grief, addiction, sexuality, longing, and the complicated ways people love one another. The tonal shifts shouldn't work as well as they do, but Seeley makes them feel effortless.
If I have one reservation, it's the moon herself. The friends' hex ultimately has nothing to do with her decision to abandon the sky, and while I'm happy to embrace the novel's surreal logic, I wanted a deeper understanding of her motivations. Spending more time with the moon might have made an already imaginative novel feel even richer.
Ultimately, We Hexed the Moon isn't really about magic. It's about the extraordinary force of female friendship. These women aren't powerful because one of them is special. They're powerful because of what happens when they're together. Their bond becomes a kind of magic all its own.
If you've been loving the current wave of messy, surreal, women-centered fiction, We Hexed the Moon deserves a place on your shelf. It's hilarious, unsettling, deeply affectionate, and weird in all the right ways. More importantly, it's the kind of novel that makes you immediately text a friend and say, "You have to read this."
