I received an eARC from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
An ambitious and evocative debut novel about one brilliant but lonely NASA secretary's relentless drive to live a big life in a world that would keep her small.
Intelligent but isolated physics graduate Annie Fisk feels an undeniable pull toward space. When she lands a job as a NASA secretary during the Apollo 11 mission, she feels certain this path is her destiny. Her memories of childhood darkened by loss, she's left behind her home, her mother, and her first love. And now she's finally found her purpose. Even typing dictation, the work is everything she dreamed, and despite her budding attraction to one of the engineers, she can't let herself be distracted. Not now.
So when her inability to ignore an engineer's mistaken calculations propels her into a new position, Annie finds herself torn between her ambition, her heart, and a mysterious discovery that upends everything she knows to be scientifically true. Can she overcome her fears and reach toward the limits of human advancement? Will she chase her ambitions, and risk losing herself in them? Affectingly achronological in its telling, Shoot the Moon daringly explores one woman's quest for both intellectual fulfillment and romantic love, the price paid for scientific progress, and the heart's persistent yearning for home.
SHOOT THE MOON is a historical fiction novel with a sci-fi twist about Annie. We follow her throughout her life in a non-linear manner as she grows up and works toward her goal of working in NASA, but when she discovers something unusual, it threatens to upend everything she's worked for.
I enjoyed the first half, but I wasn't wowed. It's a lot of set up as Annie grows up and learns about science. It was a little as you'd expect, dealing with sexism and the like, with the thread of Annie's father having worked on the atom bomb. The second half is where everything tied together with the sci-fi element explaining why the book was written the way it was. It's a truly impressive use of structure to tell a story. Also helping the story is the absolutely gorgeous writing throughout.
Annie's character arc was the stand out throughout. She has a lot of baggage from her childhood that, combined with her thirst for discovery make her a compelling character. Also, as the summary doesn't mention this, Annie is bisexual! There are a lot of casual conversations about how queer people existed in the 1960s, which was nice to see.
I rated this book 4 stars! The ending raised some questions for me, but I really enjoyed seeing this story come together in this unique way. I would recommend this book, especially for people who want to try to get into more "literary" books, but still want that speculative element.
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