Review: Blue Moon Cafe: Where Shifter Fans Meet to Read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 19, 2013
“Blue Moon Café” by Ioana Visan is another clever tale from this talented author. In Blue Moon, several seemingly unrelated short stories actually form different portions of a complete story. Each short story is a standalone story, but when combined they all work together as parts of a larger story. The basic underlying theme concerns a community largely populated by various “shifters”, such as werewolves, were-eagles, were-foxes, were-rats, and so on. In a nod to modernization, the werewolves have devolved into were-mutts; the were-eagles are now were-crows, and so on. In spite of the degraded condition of the many shifter species, they still mistrust and dislike one another. But to get along in the community, they try to work together as much as possible, with wolves and eagles serving together on the City Council, in their human forms.In this story it becomes apparent that even were-critters have some degree of community pride. When a large pack of were-mice approaches the Mayor with a development project proposal, he privately confides to his wife, a were-fox, that he will not have "those vermin" in his town. When he learns they have misrepresented themselves, and are actually were-rats, his determination is redoubled. This is an engaging story, with a good dose of humor mixed in. I am delighted to see this is billed as a “Series”; that implies there will be more stories to come concerning this community of modern shape-shifters and their Blue Moon Café. This story is quite suitable for middle-grade readers on up to the elderly reader. I believe it would be particularly appropriate for the reluctant reader, who is sure to be surprised at how involved he becomes in the various short stories as well as the overall tale. I definitely recommend this book by the very talented Ioana Visan. I also urge you to keep an eye open for more books penned by her, as she is very capable of building an entertaining story.