Romeo and Juliet meets Chinese mythology in this magical novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Astonishing Color of After.

Hunter Yee has perfect aim with a bow and arrow, but all else in his life veers wrong. He’s sick of being haunted by his family’s past mistakes. The only things keeping him from running away are his little brother, a supernatural wind, and the bewitching girl at his new high school.

Luna Chang dreads the future. Graduation looms ahead, and her parents’ expectations are stifling. When she begins to break the rules, she finds her life upended by the strange new boy in her class, the arrival of unearthly fireflies, and an ominous crack spreading across the town of Fairbridge.

As Hunter and Luna navigate their families’ enmity and secrets, everything around them begins to fall apart. All they can depend on is their love…but time is running out, and fate will have its way.

An Arrow to the Moon, Emily X.R. Pan’s brilliant and ethereal follow-up to The Astonishing Color of After, is a story about family, love, and the magic and mystery of the moon that connects us all.

YABC:  What gave you the inspiration to write this book?

An Arrow to the Moon draws from Chinese mythology—specifically the tales of Houyi the divine archer and Chang’e the goddess of the moon. Those were my favorite stories when I was growing up, and I never saw them retold in any American media that I consumed. I would see a lot of Greek mythology, Norse mythology, Egyptian mythology—but never any of the myths my dad would tell me. So I always knew I wanted to write my own version.

I also had always wanted to do a retelling of Romeo & Juliet. That was the first Shakespeare play I read rather than watched, and I was immediately enamored. It occurred to me that I could do a mashup of the two—both star-crossed, doomed love stories—and they would be a perfect fit. And then I knew how I was going to write it: as an Asian American story, and as a way to honor my younger self, who grew up in predominantly white towns where it felt like I never quite belonged.

YABC: Which came first, the title or the novel?

I definitely went through a number of titles that were not great. One of them was The Tragical History of Hunter and Luna…which is a bit of a mouthful. So the idea for the book definitely came first, and it was as I had begun to really dig into it that the novel came to me.

YABC: What scene in the book are you most proud of, and why?

Without spoiling anything, I would say the climax—which is very close to the end of the book—was the most difficult to pull off. I knew from the very beginning that that was where I wanted the story to go, but I couldn’t figure out how to earn it. I wrestled with that for a very long time, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out.

YABC:  Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned as a writer from then to now?

I’ve learned to trust myself and my vision. I had so much trouble doing that when I was working on my debut novel. After I signed with my agent and after we sold my book to my editor, I just wanted to be told what would make the story better. I didn’t have confidence in my creative instincts. My agent—who has been the greatest champion a writer could ask for—kept pointing me back to my vision, telling me that he knew I would find my way. Writing An Arrow to the Moon was a struggle, but that was the biggest lesson I learned in the process. I was fighting with myself for so much of the process of writing that book, and I had to let myself do something of a trust fall in order to believe that I was capable.

YABC: What do you like most about the cover of the book?

There is so much movement in the cover art! That’s my favorite aspect. It feels like everything is being swept upwards. Also there are just so many incredible details in there. David Curtis actually read the book before making the art—which doesn’t always happen—and it shows. There was so much thought and care put into capturing the feeling of the story. I’m very lucky.

YABC: What new release book are you looking most forward to in 2022?

There are so many! But I especially want to shout out four authors who are debuting this year. I cannot wait to read their books: Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen, The Witchery by S. Isabelle, Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah, and Drizzle, Dreams, and Lovestruck Things by Maya Prasad. I had the pleasure of working with these extraordinary writers for FORESHADOW, the platform and anthology I co-created with Nova Ren Suma, and I know they’re going to blow us all away.

YABC:   What’s up next for you?

I’m working on another young adult novel, and that will be the next book I release. I’ve also got some exciting projects waiting in the shadows. I think that’s probably all that I can share at this point!

YABC:   What advice do you have for new writers?  

I feel strongly that every writer must read a lot of books, and read widely. By that I mean: Don’t only read in the genres that you write. There are lessons to be learned from every category. Thrillers teach great tricks for pacing. Poetry shows off just how much you can do when you pay attention to word choice and syntax. Fantasy and science fiction are excellent for studying worldbuilding and suspension of disbelief. Romance novels demonstrate the art of making characters—and readers—swoon. To ignore whole genres is to do oneself a huge disservice. Reading widely is how we add to our toolboxes.