When the Moon Was Ours is a 2016 magical realism novel for young adults by Latin American author Anna-Marie McLemore. It won the Tiptree Award in 2016 and was longlisted for the National Book Award. The novel follows two teenagers, one who grows roses from her wrist and the other who comes to terms with his transgender identity. It deals with themes of Family Versus Independence, Transformation, and Gender Identity and Self-Acceptance.

This guide is based on the Thomas Dunne Books 2016 hardcover edition.

Content Warning: This novel depicts self-harm, transphobia and misgendering, and child abuse.

Plot Summary

Miel and Sam are best friends living in a conservative, majority-identity town. When Miel was very young, she was discovered inside a water tower that had been torn down. No one knew where she came from, and Sam—locally famous for the painted moons he hangs all over town—approached her and brought her home with him. Eventually, a local woman named Aracely took Miel in and gave her a home. The story incorporates elements of magical realism—Aracely has a gift for removing lovesickness from heartbroken people, and Miel grows roses from her wrist. She cuts them off and gives them to the river as an offering to the spirit of her mother.

As Sam and Miel grow up, they become closer and eventually fall in love. Four local sisters, the Bonners, are intrigued by Miel’s roses with their rumored magical properties and tell her to bring her roses to them. When she refuses, they punish her by locking her in a stained-glass coffin on their property, which is rumored to give the Bonners their beauty. Inside the coffin, Miel recalls repressed memories about how her mother kept the roses on her wrist from growing. Sam, meanwhile, works his job at the Bonner family’s pumpkin farm and navigates his life as a transgender boy.

The Bonner sisters release Miel from the coffin, but the experience leaves her distant and untethered even with Sam. Her distraction leads to her botching a lovesickness cure for the school administrator. Sam begins to notice similarities between Miel and Aracely and believes they’re secretly related. When confronted, Aracely reveals to Sam that she understands his journey because she has gone through it herself; she was born as Miel’s brother Leandro. She died trying to save Miel from drowning, and the river transformed her into a woman. Miel doesn’t know the truth about their relationship. The next time Miel refuses to give her roses to the Bonner girls, they threaten her by saying they’ve obtained Sam’s birth certificate, which lists his birth gender and name, Samira. Miel realizes she needs to cooperate to protect Sam. Unbeknownst to her, Sam becomes increasingly conflicted about Aracely’s secret and his own identity. He goes to the river and attempts to drown himself, hoping for the same transformation Aracely received. Miel rescues him, but she slaps him when she realizes he went in intentionally. They argue, both confused about their feelings for each other. Miel tells Sam she loves him. Sam tells her she holds too much of herself back from him.

After Sam leaves, Miel accidentally breaks off a new rose. One of the Bonner sisters, Ivy, punishes her by locking her away in the stained-glass coffin again, where Miel relives her past traumas—the abuse from her family who thought her roses were cursed. While Miel is missing, Sam goes to Aracely and asks to have his lovesickness removed. At the last moment, however, he stops the process and claims ownership of his feelings and himself. At work on the Bonner’s farm, he finds Miel, rescues her from the coffin, and brings her back to his house where they have sex. Sam quits his job and tells his mother he wants to live as a boy permanently. Miel discovers the truth about Aracely’s past and blames Sam for hiding it from her.

The next time Ivy Bonner tries to take one of Miel’s roses, she stands up to her, and a fierce argument ensues in the pumpkin field. Ivy physically tears the rose from Miel’s wrist, leaving her to bleed to death. Sam finds Miel in the woods near the glass coffin and revives her using the thorns of her roses to transfuse his own blood. All of the Bonner sisters arrive, and Miel and Sam confront them, claiming truths about themselves that the sisters can no longer use against them. Their declarations move the girls to speak their own truths in return. The coffin shatters, and the sisters leave knowing they don’t need the roses after all. Later, they send the pressed roses they stole back to Miel as an apology. Sam and Miel make love again, fully vulnerable with each other and ready to move forward in their relationship and in their lives.