I Should Read That

Book review¹

One day, suddenly and without explanation, the moon turns into a ball of cheese.
For some, it’s an opportunity. For others, it’s time to question their life choices. How can the world stay the same in the face of such absurdity and uncertainty?

Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and patients at the end of their lives – over the length of a lunar cycle, each gets their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to hope, to laugh and to grieve. All in a story that goes all the places you’d expect, and to many others you could never anticipate. For the people of the earth, this could be the end – or the beginning of a whole new world.

I’m a big fan of John Scalzi’s particular brand of silly sci-fi humour. Starter Villain was one of my favourite books of 2024, so I was particularly keen to read his newest release, in which the moon suddenly and inexplicably turns into cheese.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye is a book told in vignettes rather than a traditional narrative. The book begins on the day the moon undergoes its miraculous change and follows a new set of characters each day that follows. Between news reports, Reddit posts, and other media, we get an idea of how people react to their reality being turned upside down. This isn’t my favourite narrative style, but it is effective in covering a large number of people and experiences, from the President of the United States to everyday people just trying to get by. I think he does try to do a little too much with this narrative style and number of characters – you don’t get a chance to connect with the characters, even though some appear more than once. Some of the stories are absolutely fantastic – particularly the political sex scandal, the rival cheese shops, the young fantasy author trying to get published, and a particularly grim taping of Saturday Night Live – and made me laugh out loud or feel a lot of feelings. I think I personally would have preferred a more traditional narrative with these vignettes sprinkled in for texture, but that’s just my personal preference.

That said, I really enjoyed the insights into humanity’s actions and reactions to the lunar change. Imagine everything we’ve ever known about physics suddenly going out the window. How would you react? The selfishness, the panic, and the camaraderie we see feels particularly realistic, especially post-pandemic. I really enjoyed the stories of regular people and how they processed their new reality – it’s not all about people in power heroically trying to save us all.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye is a fun science fiction read filled with Scalzi’s signature humour. While it’s not my favourite of his books, it’s a solid read and I’d recommend it to fans of his work and apocalyptic fiction.

1. A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ↩︎