The Girl who Drank the Moon is a fantasy story set in an unknown time and world. The primary settings are the woods and a village known as the Protectorate. The villagers believe that there is an evil witch in the woods who will destroy them unless the youngest baby is left for her in the woods each year. There is a witch in the woods, but she is not evil. Her name is Xan and all she knows is that every year she finds an infant abandoned in the woods whom she rescues. She feeds the babies starlight and finds them loving homes in the “free cities.” One year, she mistakenly feeds an infant moonlight instead. This “enmagics” the child, which Xan knows will make her dangerous to herself and others. She, therefore, decides to raise the child herself, calling her Luna. Sure enough, as Luna grows, her magic rapidly gets out of control.
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She runs into Sister Ignatia, the true evil witch who, unbeknownst to her, is searching for Antain, meaning to kill him lest he realize the truth. Ignatia tries to harm her, but Luna is more powerful than either of them know. Soon, all five characters meet and the truth is revealed to them. Sister Ignatia is a “sorrow eater” who concocted the story of the witch and she put a fog (literally and metaphorically) over the villagers. This kept them depressed, miserable, and unquestioning. She did all of this so she could feed on their sadness to sustain her own youth and immortality. As one might expect in a children’s fairy tale, the villain is defeated (sister Antain no longer has access to sorrow now that the Protectorate knows their children live) and the heroes live happily ever after (Luna gets to know her mother and they are both able to heal, and she travels around using her magic to help people, and Antain’s child remains alive and well with his parents, which is what Antain wanted