Review of To The Moon And Back by Eliana Ramage

A debut that holds so much love for each character as we follow Steph from being young and precocious to an adult struggling with the interplay of identity and place and generational trauma that has permeated through the lives of each of her closest family members. As a reader we follow Steph’s path to greatness, while destroying and damaging all other elements of her life including her own wellbeing and the relationships she has with those closest to her. A wonderfully portrayed self-destructive character, and I cannot decide whether I love or loathe Steph.

Her relationship with all the women in her life is so intelligently thought through, each relationship growing and morphing and shifting under the weight of Steph’s own struggles as she comes to understand her Cherokee history, the immediate pain in her family and the pain that spans back centuries and has been held by each woman.

This debut took me by surprise, each element is so subtly and cleverly woven into the story and a great sense of satisfaction comes for seeing how each thread gets pulled through the narrative into a rich and breathtaking tapestry of lives and moments, with past and future sitting as equals upon the page. Nothing is overdone or overwritten and the emotions that steadily grow from page one fill each chapter with an undercurrent that makes you want to keep reading the prose forever.

Published on 19.03.2026 by Penguin

Reviewed by Rebecca

.

.

.