The Last of the Moon Girls

Lizzy has to decide whether she will preserve her family’s traditions or become “the last of the Moon Girls” (365). For generations, Moon women have lived according to rigid expectations: They don’t marry, and they are expected to remain in the town of Salem Creek, maintaining the Moon Girl Farm and providing spiritual healing services to the community. In the end, Lizzy must choose which traditions to accept and which to reject as she struggles to be true to herself while preserving the positive aspects of her family’s heritage.

The first Moon woman to come to America from France in 1786 was Sabine. After being betrayed by the father of her child, she made an “edict that no Moon allow themselves to be enslaved by marriage, lest they be betrayed and the line ended” (30). This expectation sets the Moon women apart from the community around them. Late in the novel, Lizzy discovers from Althea’s journal that her grandmother struggled with this tradition. Althea obeyed the tradition and refused to marry the man she loved, Peter, but she secretly regretted this decision for the rest of her life. Before learning about her grandmother’s regrets, Lizzy does her best to abide by the tradition that defines her family, eschewing close relationships and serious romances.