The Girl They Sold to the Moon

In a not-too-distant future where parents can pawn their children in exchange for cash, Tilly Breedlove is sent to a lunar mining colony to serve as entertainment for the miners and other inhabitants of the base. As Tilly adapts to new rules and surroundings, she uncovers an unpleasant truth: if her father doesn’t pay the money back in time, the company can keep her indefinitely. With a potential lifetime of servitude ahead of her, Tilly will have to find new depths of strength and resilience, as she learns who she can trust.

Tilly is a likable character, a little flighty and skittish but endowed with the “unexpected” brilliant talents of the average YA protagonist. While the author sidesteps some of the darker possibilities — Tilly is a dancer instead of a prostitute — it gives the book a slightly bipolar sensibility, as if it’s a world where terribly dark things SHOULD be happening, but aren’t. Despite its sci-fi trappings, much of The Girl They Sold to the Moon feels like a Broadway story transplanted into space.

While the book doesn’t entirely gel, Tilly and her band of misfits shine, and I hope we get to see them again someday.