Maggot Moon is hard to classify. The protagonist is Standish Treadwell who cannot read, cannot write, isn’t bright. Yet he foils a plot to claim a lunar landing by his totalitarian country.
Very Dark
I noticed two reviewers on Amazon were upset at the violence and hatred that poured through Standish’s teacher, the local neighborhood snitches and the secret police. There is a reason for this.
This book is aimed at young adults but it is more suited to older teens and adults. A teacher murders a student by beating him to death; Standish’s mother has her tongue cut out; Standish and his grandfather are slated to go to the “maggot farms” the next day. Standish has a best friend Hector who disappears along with his parents from their next door home. The regime ensures Hector’s father will cooperate by cutting off Hector’s fingers, one at a time. They shot his mother immediately.
Maggot Moon is not just “dark” it is Stygian, dealing with horrible happenings and horrible plots with complete matter of fact acceptance. It is that matter of fact telling that makes this so terrible. Standish, with mismatched eyes and not too bright knows it is a matter of time before the authorities come for him too. He is living on borrowed time.
Standish learns that the facility behind his house, hidden by a very tall wall capped with broken glass, is a fake moon surface. The scientists, the “moon explorers”, the people who built the facility, will all be murdered when the fake lunar landing is done. We learn the graves are already dug.
Bravery
In the face of this Standish decides to jump out in full view of the television cameras – and the machine gun armed guards – with a sign that says “hoax”. His reason is simple. No one should believe that such a horrible country can deliver something so wonderful as a moon landing. And no one should fear the regime’s threats to launch missels from the moon.
Standish may not be bright but he is brave. He knows he has no chance to survive, but of course, he won’t survive even if he stays home meekly waiting to be collected for his one way trip to the maggot farm.
Interesting Characters
Standish, his best friend Hector, his grandfather, his grandfather’s love, Hector’s parents are interesting people that we feel like we could like had we met them in person. Sally Gardner does a good job with the characterization.
Overall
Sally Gardner built an all-too-believable society and her novel builds upon the initial horror, until it is almost pure terror, but the other ingredients are grace and love.
I recommend this for adults, not for children.
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