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The Moth Diaries

3.42 of 5 stars 3.42 · rating details · 864 ratings · 133 reviews

At an exclusive girls' boarding school, a sixteen-year-old girl records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. The object of her obsession is her room-mate, Lucy Blake, and Lucy's friendship with their new and disturbing classmate. Ernessa is a mysterious presence with pale skin and hypnotic eyes. Around her swirl dark secrets and a series of ominous disasters. As fear spr...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published April 7th 2005 by Faber & Faber Limited (first published May 30th 2002)

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Aug 19, 2010 Gabrielle Elise rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found "The Moth Diaries" by Rachel Klien quite hard to get into at the beginning. Not only was it in the form of a girl's diary, (we never learnt her name) but the story had an air of 'experience' - for lack of better word.
The main idea of the book was the girl's jealousy of her roomate in bording school and best friend, Lucy Blake, and her bond with the new girl, Ernessa Bloch. After a few encounters with this "Ernessa", the author of the diary decides that she doesn't like her, and that thi...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Kat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, memorable, teen-angst, worth-it

Quite a mindbender of a novel! Not really sure what was happening which I'm guessing was the point. Laid on the tortured poet thing a little heavy but it delves into the entangled emotions of a teenage school girl starting a new year and having a new person come in and steal her best friend away from her. Add to that her unresolved issues with her father's suicide (he was a poet) and you have the recipe for some angst upon angst.

My reading of the novel was that Rebecca is severely depressed and...more

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Apr 20, 2013 Pip rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: insufferably-characterised-books, owned-books, books-i-didn-t-particularly-like

the book starts out slowly and increases its drawn-out narrative. diary style and with the narrater not identified by name, it's usually something I like. unfortunately, it drags on with no discernible personality to the narrator, other than her being artistic (her father being a poet) and her going unnoticed for most of her boarding school life and at home, though she still has 'friends', most of whom she despises.

the added teen pasttime of smoking, drugs and sneaking out at night is believabl...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Mark Vrabel rated it 4 of 5 stars

What can I say? I'm a sucker for diary/journal entries -- especially those of adolescents -- as a storytelling device. I applaud the catalogers who assigned it the "Form/Genre" of "Psychological fiction" and "Gothic fiction" but refrained from giving it a "Vampires--Fiction" subject heading, despite the appearance (in a sense) of a vampire antagonist. I was surprised the first few published reviews I checked were lukewarm-to-negative, as I found the book compelling and thought it captured both t...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Eccentrika rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, paranormal, psychology

Il titolo di questo libro può portare alla mente parecchi déjà vu. La parola "diari" (o "diario") negli ultimi anni è stata usata a sproposito molte (troppe) volte per intitolare libri dai contenuti più disparati. Sembrava quasi una moda. Questa volta no. "I diari della falena", traduzione letterale dell'edizione in lingua "The Moth Diaries", si intitola così proprio perché (finalmente) il libro è scritto sotto forma di diario. L'ambientazione è negli anni '60. La voce narrante in prima persona...more Il titolo di questo libro può portare alla mente parecchi déjà vu. La parola "diari" (o "diario") negli ultimi anni è stata usata a sproposito molte (troppe) volte per intitolare libri dai contenuti più disparati. Sembrava quasi una moda. Questa volta no. "I diari della falena", traduzione letterale dell'edizione in lingua "The Moth Diaries", si intitola così proprio perché (finalmente) il libro è scritto sotto forma di diario. L'ambientazione è negli anni '60. La voce narrante in prima persona (della quale non si conoscerà mai il nome) è una ragazza di 16 anni che frequenta il terzo anno di liceo in un collegio per ragazze. Nel suo diario narrerà da Settembre a Maggio la sua vita quotidiana all'interno del collegio, tutti i suoi pensieri e tutto ciò succede, che vede, sente o immagina fuori e dentro la struttura scolastica. Io amo i libri scritti sotto forma di diario, perché mi danno sensazioni più "vere" e più "forti" e questo libro non fa eccezione. Il ritmo narrativo è a volte cadenzato e poetico, a volte meccanico e veloce, come tutti i diari del resto, ma l'ho trovato molto gradevole. La storia parte pacata, in sordina, e sembra non succedere mai nulla di significativo, ma è interessante assistere alla quotidianità del collegio, assistere alla descrizione di quelle giornate apparentemente tutte uguali, scandite da prestabiliti rituali e dai suoni della campanella ad orari ben precisi. La protagonista giorno dopo giorno nota che Lucy, la sua migliore amica, le dedica sempre meno tempo e lo trascorre sempre più frequentemente in compagnia di Ernessa, una nuova allieva, molto misteriosa e riservata. Sarà la gelosia nei confronti di Lucy che la porterà ad osservare costantemente Ernessa e la porterà a notare che in lei c'è qualcosa di strano. I suoi movimenti, le sue abitudini, le sue caratteristiche fisiche... tutto in lei è diverso dalle altre ragazze. Ma la cosa che la tormenta maggiormente è che Lucy si allontana da lei sempre di più, Ernessa la sta circuendo, e non c'è nessuno in tutta la struttura collegiale a capirlo e ad accorgersi che Ernessa non è umana ed è molto pericolosa.
Nelle pagine di questo diario più si va avanti con la lettura e più si percepisce l'inquietudine e il tormento della protagonista. A volte le sue riflessioni appaiono confuse come in un sogno e neanche lei ad un certo punto riesce bene a capire ciò che è reale e ciò che non lo è. Inoltre, è sempre presente in lei un radicato sentimento di tristezza, causatole dalla morte per suicidio del padre tre anni prima. Un trauma che si trascina dietro senza riuscire a superare. Ciò che succede nel collegio non fa altro che acuire il suo dolore e portarla a pensare sempre più spesso al suo passato. E nel frattempo nel collegio avvengono episodi drammatici uno dietro l'altro e non c'è nessuno ad accorgersi che dietro a tutto ciò si cela Ernessa. Anzi, pensano che sia lei la persona da dover evitare e che la sua ossessione per Ernessa la stia facendo uscire di testa. Solo dopo l'ennesimo episodio drammatico la protagonista cercherà realmente di reagire e mettere fine alla scia di dolore e orrore che è stata trascinata nel collegio per tutta la durata dell'anno scolastico.
Ritengo che questo libro sia molto difficile da comprendere, perché vi è al suo interno una complicata analisi psicologica della protagonista, e dietro al lato sovrannaturale, che comunque ho trovato molto ben descritto e ben riuscito nel contesto della storia, si cela un qualcosa di molto più tortuoso e poliedrico di ciò che potrebbe apparire da una lettura superficiale. Non è un romanzo per tutti, e trovo riduttivo definirlo come un romanzo per adolescenti dai contenuti banali, perché per me non è affatto così. Io l'ho trovata una storia profonda, inquientante, disperata e drammatica, che mi ha fatto riflettere. Certo, è stato frustrante sul finale non riuscire bene a capire come sono andate davvero le cose. La narrazione rimane volutamente sospesa in una sorta di limbo tra sogno e realtà. O forse è la mente deviata della protagonista ad avere immaginato tutto? Mi sono lambicata più volte il cervello per cercare di capire meglio il messaggio che voleva trasmettere; in parte mi sembra di essere arrivata ad una soluzione, ma in parte non ne sono sicura. Indubbiamente questo è uno di quei romanzi del quale non mi dimenticherò tanto facilmente!!!(less)

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Jun 14, 2012 Emmett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, young-adult, thrillers

Thoroughly enjoyed swimming around in Klein's rich, vivid prose. It's a book of obsession: with people, with death, with clues both real and imagined (with both blending into themselves, indistinguishable). The isolated, almost ethereal atmosphere of a boarding school, secluded, hushed, away from everybody else, makes the ideal foreign, unreal location for these series of creepy happenings and for such a deep, strangling, consuming thought to take hold. Everything is intense there: from the thou...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Jill the Ripper rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-like-a-boy-that-ll-eat-me, i-liked-the-mc, no-really-i-loved-it, qualifies-a-black-swan-gif

I picked this up at a second-hand booksale for five dollars simply because of the title and the promise of a boarding school that may or may not be creepy and awesome.

I am really glad I did.

First off, the biggest thing about this novel is that it's one of those, "is she/is she not" things, i.e., it plays big on whether or not the narrator (a sixteen year old boarder, who's lonelier and lovelier than I think she gave herself credit for) is descending into a spiral of madness, or if the disjointed...more

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Jan 12, 2011 Sophie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, young-adult, fiction

Rachel Klein’s The Moth Diaries is a gripping, beautifully-written novel of female adolescence. The unreliable narrator—whose name the reader never learns—is a young woman who grows increasingly obsessed with her friend, Lucy, and new girl Ernessa at their boarding school. The novel draws in the reader from the offset; Klein weaves a masterful web with her debut, until the reader becomes convinced, alongside the narrator, that there is something strange about Ernessa.

The characters of The Moth D...more

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Nov 17, 2010 Iffath added it · review of another edition

Being a typically huge fan of vampires, I really warmed to the idea of The Moth Diaries. I cannot even tell you how refreshing this book was, Klein has totally reinvented the myth that is the vampire and turned it into a race for survival that is triggered by the wonderful thing that is teenage anxiety. I loved how fantastically different The Moth Diaries was from other books about vampires. For one thing, the book isn't all 'Vampires! Argh! Bite me! Argh! Evil blood-sucking creatures! Argh!' (e...more Being a typically huge fan of vampires, I really warmed to the idea of The Moth Diaries. I cannot even tell you how refreshing this book was, Klein has totally reinvented the myth that is the vampire and turned it into a race for survival that is triggered by the wonderful thing that is teenage anxiety. I loved how fantastically different The Moth Diaries was from other books about vampires. For one thing, the book isn't all 'Vampires! Argh! Bite me! Argh! Evil blood-sucking creatures! Argh!' (excuse my poor summary of the genre of books I am in love with really). Okay, maybe it was a little bit, but it not in that way exactly, plus it was intertwined into actual human life and it just felt so much more realistic.

The novel is told through the diary of a young teenage girl in a private school, who is unusually obsessed with her classmate (and best friend turned ex-best friend) Lucy, and Lucy's potential vampire roommate Ernessa.

I understood the narrator's paranoia. The more she thought about what the hell Ernessa could be, the more she was driving herself into the wrong direction. I don't believe she was crazy. But perhaps still flustered over the tragedy of her father's death. She was more thoughtful, intelligent than the other girls in the school.

At first I didn't know what to make of the book, until I let my mind linger on the events that happened. The story is left unfinished and we are left uncertain about whether there really is a vampire amongst the school or that the narrator is just umm, *cough*deranged*cough*. It is up to you to decide for yourself what is real and what is not. I loved how lots of parts were left to our own imagination.

To really understand the story, you need to read between the lines, because there is more to Klein's novel than just what meets the eye. Mysterious and thrilling, The Moth Diaries is a complex, atmospheric story that requires a lot of thought. For all its simplicity, subtlety and gothicness, reading The Moth Diaries will give you a real taste of indulgence - the brain stimulating kind that we all pretend we don't like. I think you should read it, really.(less)

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May 10, 2012 jo mo marked it as dropped · review of another edition

Shelves: gothic, boarding-school, lgbt, call-me-crazy, horror, mystery, vampires, young-adult, ghosts-or-genies, paranormal, family, made-into-movie, sexuality

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Jan 10, 2010 Hannah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: amerikaans, kinder-en-jeugdboeken, coming-of-age

I was looking forward to reading this book, because I usually like stories where there is ambiguity between friendship, obsession and romantic attraction. Add "and possibly, vampirism" to that list, and I'm sold. It sounded wonderful, in other words.
I don't really know what made me enjoy it so much less than I had expected. Maybe the diary form? It was very realistic as a teenage girl's diary, maybe too much so to be very good as a novel. Uninteresting to anyone but those involved, and you never...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Claire rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Moth Diaries is a beautifully crafted novel. The author's portrayal of the relationships between adolescent girls is spot on, and although I initially had difficulty getting into the story, it was the convincing dynamic between the boarders that drew me in.

The book had a powerful atmosphere from start to finish, and the ambiguity regarding Ernessa was in keeping with the tone of the novel. It's unclear whether she was a vampire or some kind of alternate personality onto which the narrative...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Apricotteacup rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein is a psychological horror novel for the older YA crowd that relies on slow building tension to paint a tale of obsession and paranoia. The Unnamed Narrator tells the story of her final year in a posh 1960’s all girls boarding school. A strange new girl, Ernessa, has joined the cast of boarders at the school and has begun to threaten our Narrators friendship/infatuation with her roommate Lucy. Rather than accept Lucy’s betrayal, the Narrator begins to imagine that...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Kerstin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, read-in-2011

This book really kept me captivated. It is written in the style of a diary by a sixteen year old girl (whose name we never find out), who is living in a boarding school during the 1960s. She has lost her father to suicide a little while ago and is still trying to come to terms with it. At the beginning of her junior year, a new girl, Ernessa, joins them and the girl soon realizes that she doesn't like the newcomer at all. Ernessa is weird and solitary and strange and to top it all off, seems to...more

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Dec 16, 2009 ღஐღ αmαndα ღஐღ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star-books, vampires

I didn't enjoy this much the first time I read it, but when I found out it was a true story (apart from the names being changed) I read again. It was alot more eerier and made me pay more attention to the story.

At a girls' boarding school, a sixteen-year-old pupil records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. The object of her obsession is her room-mate Lucy Blake, and Lucy's friendship with their new and disturbing classmate. Ernessa is a mysterious presence with pale skin and hypnotic eyes. A...more

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Apr 03, 2012 Wynne Kontos rated it 2 of 5 stars

I had this one on my shelf for a long time, having bought it and never read it. And let me tell you, it's a strange read.
The nameless female narrator has found herself at boarding school for the past few years after the suicide of her father and mental breakdown of her mother. Slowly you realize (make that very slowly) that the story is set in the sixties, but I guess maybe I'm the slow one, since the boarding school allowed it's female students to indulge in a smoke break after lunch (good luc...more I had this one on my shelf for a long time, having bought it and never read it. And let me tell you, it's a strange read.
The nameless female narrator has found herself at boarding school for the past few years after the suicide of her father and mental breakdown of her mother. Slowly you realize (make that very slowly) that the story is set in the sixties, but I guess maybe I'm the slow one, since the boarding school allowed it's female students to indulge in a smoke break after lunch (good luck floating that now.)
Right away, I had a difficult time liking the narrator. Part of "the Moth Diaries" biggest plot points is that she is obsessed with her roommate, Lucy. But why?! For diary entry after entry we listen to her obsess over Lucy's whereabouts and behaviors, in a way that definitely speaks to the is she or isn't she insane piece, but is unpleasant to read. When Lucy begins to abandon the narrator in favor of the strange new boarder, Ernessa, who can blame her? Of course the narrator finds reasons to hate Ernessa right away, most of which indicate that Ernessa may be some type of supernatural creature, namely a vampire. She never eats at dinner, is often absent for class, her room is virtually empty and smells like "decay," and she appears and disappears in rooms. Even with these qualities, it's hard to fault Lucy for wanting to distance herself from her overprotective roommate. It isn't until other things, and then people, begin to die that the narrator believes something truly more sinister is going on with Ernessa, and her growing power over Lucy.
Klein has a knack for powerful language, and blends what may be the narrators psychotic episodes with true experiences in a way that had me re-reading them in order to try and understand. But isn't that the point? Is Ernessa really a vampire? Using the other girl's budding sexuality as a way to prey on them for their blood? Or is our already unreliable narrator quickly losing grip with reality?
Despite the these well written aspects, it's hard to stay connected to a challenging story when there's no real ally in your main character. The nameless young woman we're following is at no point very likable, especially when she wipes her own shit over Lucy's door in an attempt to dissuade any supernatural creatures, namely Ernessa, from entering the room. I have my own theories as to the book's conclusion, and you will certainly make yours. But this book read slowly, and overall, left a bad taste in my mouth. No pun intended.(less)

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Oct 14, 2012 Anke rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: nobody.

Shelves: not-worth-it

I'm not sure why I finished reading this. So very, very dull. It dragged on and on, and very little happens - I suppose reading somebody's diary is only ever as interesting as the person writing it, and the narrator in this story does not have enough of a story to tell to fill a book of this length. Yeah, you keep wondering what is in her head and what may be real, but then, you were wondering that already just by reading the back of the book, and the novel itself does not add much to the myster...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Brittany rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, diary-style-writing, vampire

When Ernessa comes to the boarding school, Lucy and her become very close. Becca doesn't like this new development at all. This was supposed to be a year all about Lucy and Becca. Ernessa is also...strange. She doesn't eat and she always says odd things. No one but Becca seems to notice that she's off, at first. A couple of the other girls start to notice that there is something not quite right with Ernessa, but things don't end well for those who notice. As her allies leave, she is left watchin...more When Ernessa comes to the boarding school, Lucy and her become very close. Becca doesn't like this new development at all. This was supposed to be a year all about Lucy and Becca. Ernessa is also...strange. She doesn't eat and she always says odd things. No one but Becca seems to notice that she's off, at first. A couple of the other girls start to notice that there is something not quite right with Ernessa, but things don't end well for those who notice. As her allies leave, she is left watching Lucy change. No one will believe her about Ernessa, so she'll just have to solve the problem herself.

I remembered liking this a lot more when I first read it. Maybe I'm just more well read now and so found things more irritating this time around. The hardest thing for me, was that this book just seemed confusing. Realistic, but confusing. Becca's thoughts jumped around way too much to be able to pay attention to what is happening. She also draws conclusions very early on, with little evidence to support the claims. There is certainly something odd about Ernessa, but even after finishing this novel, I am unsure that Becca's deductions were correct.

I do enjoy novels written in diary-form, but I think it didn't quite work for this story. Becca wrote about a lot of useless things, that took away from the main story a little. It made her into a more rounded character, but they changed the tone of the novel. Her daily observances of life just seemed misplaced alongside her depression and detective work.

Another thing that was sort of strange was the relationship between Becca and Mr. Davies. What is going on there. It seemed a bit disjointed and weird. One situation they had between them was the most awkward thing I've read. Really most of their interactions were awkward. I feel like it could have been a bit more decisive one way or another.

Ernessa was such a weird character. I wish that we got to learn more truths about her. She has a lot of conflicting situations surrounding her. I did love that you never really knew for sure what was going on with her or if it was maybe just Becca's jealousy giving her delusions about the whole thing. As much as that was enjoyable, I still wished there was some sort of definitive answer.

This was an interesting, mysterious, gothic tale and as long as you don't mind books that don't have official answers, then you should check this one out. It's a fascinating read to say the least.

First Line:
"When Dr. Karl Wolff first suggested publishing the journal that I kept during my junior year in boarding school, I thought I hadn't head him correctly."

Favorite Line:
"'I used to say 'Books, my food.' But now all my food has been poisoned.'"

You can check out my review of the movie here.(less)

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Jan 15, 2009 Alissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: gothic

The first time I read this book a few years back, I really wasn't sure what to think of it, but the story stuck with me. And when I re-read the book again this past summer, I really enjoyed it.

The story itself is a haunting, and sometimes terrifying, glimpse into the mind of a narratror who may, or may not, be spiraling into insanity. Throughout the course of her year at an exclusive girls' boarding school, the narrator confesses to her diary why she believes a classmate is a vampire who has po...more

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Mar 14, 2012 David Blue rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-vampire-stories

I remain terribly impressed with this eerie tale, one where figuring out what really happens remains a perhaps insoluble mystery. The narrator clearly suffers a mental breakdown during the narrative, and we see that all too clearly in the pages of her diary. But does that mean her suspicions about Enessa were false? Looking back, how odd is it that a teenage girl had a "psychotic break" yet never had another? And what about those deaths?

Clearly inspired by Le Fanu's seminal CARMILLA, Rachel Klei...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Marie Evans rated it 3 of 5 stars

As I read a lot of Young Adult books I was looking for a Vampire book that is not part of a series.
When I first picked up this book I read that it was written in the format of a diary.

Having never read a book in this format I didn’t really know what to expect. However when I started reading the preface I was intrigued. The ‘author’ of the diary suffers from borderline personality disorder, depression and psychosis. This comes through a lot in the story. Personally I found the main character to...more

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Mar 17, 2011 Krystine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Definitely should not be described as a vampire novel, that's like false advertising. Luckily I didn't bother reading the back cover before I started reading, so I didn't think it was supposed to be about vampires. It's a dark story of adolescent girls and their day-to-day drama, with a touch of eeriness. But because of the way it's told, the weird things don't seem sci-fi at all, and we'll never know if it's the truth or the narrator going crazy. I loved this book, enjoyed it cover to cover, th...more

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May 13, 2013 Uninspiriert rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: thoughtful readers with a taste for bitterness

This was one of the few books I reread a dozen times.

I don't really know, if it is a real diary or fiction, but it did feel like reading a diary, whereas it was written pretty detailed and describing, which I liked. It took a step away from just telling the story and toward telling a story well and so I don't even care anymore, if it is real or not.

The story is... strange. Even after rereading it again and again I still don't get, what happened, what was reality and what wasn't. I suppose it is...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Natascha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fun-reads, good-teen-reading, paranormal

The Moth Diaries is just what it's called. A novel in diary format about a girl and her hurdled path through grief. Her father had committed suicide two years before and now the girl who dragged her through that period of her life, Lucy, has made a new friend, Ernessa Block. The year is scattered with unfortunate events and the narrator can't help but wonder if Ernessa has anything to do with it.

It's written in journalstyled entries, which makes for a quick read but also a very chaotic one, as t...more The Moth Diaries is just what it's called. A novel in diary format about a girl and her hurdled path through grief. Her father had committed suicide two years before and now the girl who dragged her through that period of her life, Lucy, has made a new friend, Ernessa Block. The year is scattered with unfortunate events and the narrator can't help but wonder if Ernessa has anything to do with it.

It's written in journalstyled entries, which makes for a quick read but also a very chaotic one, as the characters aren't all described to the fullest as would be the case in a classical novel. In my opinion this doesn't pose a problem but rather adds to the way the story is framed. If you would go into any girls bedroom right now and pick up her diary, you would find the exact same lack of description. As it containes details of one girl's life she doesn't need rich descriptions of the people around her, she meets them every day.
For these kinds of stories the format works realy well because it keeps you guising and you have a closer relationship with the narrator. You see the world through her eyes and her eyes only, which sucks you into the story more. At least in my experiance.
This review will contain spoilers.

This book is what Black Swan would have been if it was set in a all girls school. Our main character and narrator, who remains unnamed through-out the book, becomes obscessed with a new arrival at the boarding school, Ernessa Block. Who's crime is becoming very intimate friends with the narrator's roommate Lucy.
When the narrator's father died she had spotted Lucy at the school and longed to be like her. Lucy was simple, happy, non-jewish and whole, everything the narrator wasn't at the time. Sharing her with anyone, would be difficult. But our narrator doesn't like Ernessa. She can't come to grips with the fact that teenage friendships are as fickle as the teenage girls themselves. Lucy is drifting away down a new path and the narrator can't cope.

Through a series of unfortunate and unexplainable event in the school, the narrator starts to believe that Ernessa is a vampire. We read about her suspisions and eventual isolation from the rest of her school friends, who cannot tollerate her strange facinations and even blame her for Lucy's sudden death at the end of the story.
Like in the movie Black Swan, we can never trust our narrator 100%. The question always remains: "Is the narrator telling the truth or are her thruths the result of a sick mind ?" After finishing the book we can clearly see enough signs of the latter. A good example of this is the forgotten conversation the narrator and a friend Dora have with Ernessa about being Jewish. She reports that she reread her journal and doesn't understand why she didn't write this down because she clearly remembers it. The strange conversatiosn with Ernessa are another example of the state of mind the narrator's in.

I've read a few reviews that undermine the believebility of the book because of the way some girls talk. Dora's deep reflections about Nietzsche for instance, or the way Ernessa talks, I have to disagree on that. We all know them and have known them, the "smart" people in our school, job, university who flaunt and brag about the fact they've read Nietzsche, the poems of Emily Dickinson, Plato etc. They want to convey they are great thinkers and very intelligent so they start debates about politics at lunch and talk down to people who don't respond to their flaunts or are in fact as intelligent as they are and don't go bragging about it.

The subplot about Mr Davies, I confess I don't see the point of. If he had been just a teacher who saw something was wrong with the narrator and tried to reach her, that would have been more convincing. Instead he grabs her boobs and kisses her out of nowhere.

Like Black Swan, the story ends without a doubt of the instability of the narrator's mind. In that effect I prefer the ending of the movie version , where the main character just rides of in a police car. We can immagine she'll get into trouble but we don't know for sure. In the book it is stated that she was commited to a mental hospital and grew up to be the one thing she always stated her blond, airhead friends would be, a married mother, a grown-up with a life just like anyone else. Whick brings me to another problem. What is so wrong with growing up and having a family of your own? It's an expectation of sociaty yes, and I can see that people would want to avoid anything to do with mainstream society. But realy, does having a family mean you are a sell-out? A traitor to your big ideas and dreams you had when you were younger? I don't think so. Having a family doesn't mean an end to everything you ever were. But rather a next stage in your development as a person.

I must congratulate the author on writing a vampire story that isn't Twilighty in this day and age. And most of all that this story shows a love intrest isn't neccesary for a good story. You can argue that Lucy is some sort of love intrest but the relationship between the narrator and her is much more complex than that. She needs Lucy but not in a romantic way. I love that there are hardley any boys ,or men for that matter in this book. There are far to little stories written entirely from a female point of view in a female world. (less)

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Jun 11, 2009 Jayaprakash Satyamurthy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Disturbing if the supernatural elements were true; perhaps even more so if they weren't. Adolescence, the female variety - as told by a girl who is far more intelligent and disturbed than a dormitory full of Holdens. I loved the subtle commentary on the ways in which people engage with books that are interspersed through the book. It's worth re-reading some of the things referred to here to see how Klein cleverly draws on everything from J Sheridan Le Fanu and Robert Chambers to Proust and Nietz...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Elena rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: are-you-fucking-kidding-me, boring

Vampiri o pazzia?
La storia si svolge in un collegio femminile, la protagonista è una sedicenne di cui non si conosce il nome. E' stata portata nel collegio dalla madre che non è più riuscita a riprendersi dal suicidio del padre.
Nonostante fosse una ragazzina piuttosto chiusa in se stessa è riuscita a fare subito amicizia con un'altra ragazza, Lucy.
Presto le due diventano inseparabili e fanno tutto assieme, qualsiasi cosa. Da come viene descritto il rapporto d'amicizia sembra in realtà qualcosa di più...
Tutto va come al solito, le solite compagnie, un collegio del tutto normale...fino a quando non compare una ragazza nuova. All'inizio sembra normale, soltanto un po' solitaria e una che mangia poco forse perché è a dieta.
Si chiama Ernessa, ha la carnagione bianchissima, è molto intelligente e molto strana ma nessuno sembra accorgersene. Ernessa si avvicina pian piano a Lucy e col tempo tra loro si instaura un legame molto strano al quale nessuno fa caso ma che fa ingelosire la nostra protagonista.
Ad i soliti problemi che può avere una normale ragazza di sedici anni si aggiunge un problema, un oscuro segreto che si trasforma in un incubo.
Nessuno si accorge che Ernessa è un vampiro?!

Questo libro mi aveva subito attirata per la trama misteriosa che si ritrovava e per un ambiente e un contesto abbastanza originali.
Quando finalmente l'avevo preso in mano ero stata posseduta da una voglia irrefrenabile di immergermi nella storia, ma dopo le prime pagine, dopo altri capitoli raggiunti con difficoltà ero giunta ad una conclusione.
Forse ero stata troppo avventata nell'avventurarmi in questo romanzo.
Per prima cosa c'è da dire che è scritto come un diario ed io personalmente non ne sono un'amante.
Non mi aspettavo un capolavoro ma devo dire che dopo i primi capitoli letti con una lentezza sovrumana è stato difficile arrivare alla fine.
Il problema è che nonostante avesse numerose possibilità come storia di base, il romanzo era del tutto o quasi privo di colpi di scena.
Mi dispiace per l'autrice perché contavo molto su questo suo esordio.
Personalmente è un romanzo che non consiglierei.
Se vi piacciono i diari, i racconti gotici e un tantino allucinati ci potreste fare un pensierino.

(less)

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Apr 02, 2013 Chiara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, want-to-own, favorites

The Moth Diaries is presented in the form of a young girl's diary during the year that she is age sixteen. She attends an all-girls boarding school, and is looking forward to the new year with her best friend; Lucy. When a new student arrives, Ernessa, the narrator is instantly jealous of the relationship that forms between Lucy and Ernessa. The narrator examines every detail of every interaction, to the point of obsession. She starts to believe that supernatural forces are at work, and that Luc...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Gitte rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, american, young-adult, written-after-2000

This was a very disturbing read. It reminded me of Rosemary's Baby, where you don't really know if there is something strange and supernatural going on or if the main character is 'just' going insane...

But either way the story is about grief and the hope of / obsession with the perfect friendship that could ease the feeling of loneliness and alienation. The description of the teenage girls was spot-on in so many ways and the novel was very well-written. But I missed a real plot. It was more abo...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Elgalla rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found out about this book by chance and watched the movie version first. I was surprised by how much I liked it because, initially, I had thought I would be yet another paranormal romance/teen vampire story. Thankfully, it wasn't. This is a story of growing up, of struggling with adolescence and the ghosts of the past, of people so wrapped up in their pain that they cannot see the world around them. The writing was reminiscent of a young girl's and transported my back to my own adolescence. Fa...more

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Jun 06, 2010 Carien rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya

This story has lots of promise, but doesn't deliver. It starts out nice, with a slow build up to the point that the lead character starts to think Ernessa is a vampire, but when that point is reached the story falls flat and drags itself towards the end. The lead character also wasn't believable to me. One minute she spouts wisdoms that would fit someone with lots more experience and the next minute she talks like a spoilt brat. I also think this story would have worked better if it wasn't writt...more

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About Rachel Klein

Rachel Klein is an American novelist, translator and essayist.

She is the author of the 2002 novel The Moth Diaries.[1] Daughter of University of Pennsylvania economics professor Lawrence Klein and originally from Philadelphia, PA, Klein currently works and resides in Brooklyn, NY with her family. Her stories and translations have appeared in The Chicago Review and The Literary Review.

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Books by Rachel Klein

Fodor's Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, 15th Edition (Fodor's Gold Guides)

Fodor's Montreal and Quebec City 2008 (Fodor's Gold Guides)

Fodor's Los Angeles 2011: with Disneyland & Orange County

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Quotes from The Moth Diaries

“You don't know where you are or where your dreams end and the world begins.” — 36 people liked it

“She goes where she pleases. She appears unhoped for, uncalled for. She moves through doors and walls and windows. Her thoughts move through minds. She enters dreams. She vanishes and is still there. She knows the future and sees through flesh. She is not afraid of anything.” — 27 people liked it

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