Indigo Moon

This review contains spoilers.

Indigo Moon is written in first person with chapters alternating between the perspectives of Indigo Hoffman and Rigel Fletcher. The author does a good job at differentiating between Indigo and Rigel, giving them each a unique voice.

Rigel and Indigo are the second generation of a group of people with “virally optimised” DNA after an illness called M-fever. These people can time travel, shape shift, and communicate telepathically. They are also immortal, although, as we discover, dying isn’t impossible.

Indigo meets a man called Billy and is instantly infatuated. Their relationship starts out okay, but Billy isn’t who he seems. I found the revelation of Billy’s true identity confusing. It felt like the author had two different ideas for his character and, instead of picking one, decided to go with both. Perhaps this is something that will be explored further and made clearer in the other books in this series.

The author uses a lot of poetic language to describe character actions (“I reach and leap”; “I, Indigo Moon, am plunging over the edge and past the point of no return”), but sometimes it was hard to tell which is metaphorical and which is literal.

Indigo Moon is the first book in the Eternity Loop series, with the author leaving questions unanswered (What really happened to Rigel’s Dad? Is Indigo going to die? Who is Andromeda?), a looming pandemic, and hints of an ongoing will they/won’t they relationship between Rigel and Indigo, there is plenty of material still be to be covered in the rest of the series.

All-in-all this book was a good read. It’s fast-paced and keeps you guessing. I read it twice in a month and found the story just as gripping the second time. However, I struggle to recommend it fully due to the problematic portrayals of consent and bodily autonomy (see ‘advisory warnings’ for more information).

Do you have any advisory warnings for this book? Yes. The portrayals of romantic relationships between captor and captive, captive and rescuer are problematic.

Indigo and Billy continue their relationship (including sex) even after he has taken her captive. Billy uses knowledge of Indigo’s future, with no proof that what he is saying is true, to convince her into having invasive medical procedures. Rigel shapeshifts into Billy’s body while Billy and Indigo are making out. He leaves when Indigo wants to have sex (thinking he is Billy), but even without sex this is still a big problem with regards to consent. My concern is that this book presents these situations neutrally at best, romantic or enjoyable at worst. For this reason, I struggle to recommend the book for students (especially younger students) to read alone. It would be better in a situation where guided discussions could be had around consent and coercion, power and control, healthy and unhealthy relationships.

Sexual abuse/assault statistics tell us that many of our students have had sexual experiences where they felt unable to say no and parts of this book may be triggering for them, especially those involving abuse of power, or where those abusing them claimed to love them.

Would this book work as a read aloud? No

Is there is particular part of the country that it’s set in? Brief mentions of Auckland and Whangarei circa 2066, but the book is mainly set in London and Norway 2066, with visits to London 1996, Santorini 2005,and 19th century America.