Romantasy and Religious Trauma: A Review of The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

As January slowly marches on, I have made minimal progress on my reading goal. But I have managed to read one of my most anticipated books of the year! I wasted no time diving into this one.

Please welcome The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig to the stage!

As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve read any other review on this site then you will know I simply love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. Also, a quick content and trigger warning. The Knight and the Moth has mentions of both physical and mental abuse. Please be aware of these topics before going in. And with that, let’s get to the synopsis.

In the world of Traum there is the Stonewater Kingdom. The kingdom worships six godly figures known as the Omens: the Artful Brigand, the Harried Scribe, the Ardent Oarsmen, the Faithful Forester, the Heartsore Weaver, and the Moth. Each has a unique stone object which foretells a person's fate. And only a select group of women, known as the Diviners, can read the signs these objects present in their dreams.

One such Diviner is Sybil Delling, though it has been nearly ten years since anyone has spoken her name. As a Diviner, her identity has been stripped away and she’s known simply as Six. She herself does not matter, all that matters is what she can interpret for others in her dreams. Will she see good things, or will the future be bleak; like that of the new King Benedict Castor?

Speaking of Benedict Castor, it seems Sybil’s destiny is tied to his. After Sybil divines for the king, the other five Diviners go missing one by one in the night. In desperate need for answers, Sybil joins Benedict’s entourage along with a peculiar gargoyle from the abbey she escapes from. She will not return to the abbey until she finds her fellow Diviners or learns what terrible fate may have befallen them. Can she do it? Can she find out the fate of her friends? Or will she too disappear? Find out in The Knight and the Moth.

Do you want trope-y romantasy? Do you want a book that’s mainly vibes? Then do I have the story for you! The Knight and the Moth has enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, found family, kings and queens, gods, and a fetch quest hero’s journey. 

There’s danger around every corner, life and death stakes, and a quest for revenge. Well…maybe not revenge. Revenge will likely be the theme for the book’s upcoming sequel. And I can’t wait for it. I want to see Sybil get revenge on all those who wronged her and her fellow Diviners.

To me, the Diviners, and the religion surrounding Traum, were the most interesting part of the story. All the worldbuilding Rachel Gillig put into the story went to the Omens and the Diviners. The Stonewater Kingdom is fairly simple. Each town has one main industry, every location is somehow geographically different to an extreme degree, and the world itself generally falls to the wayside. The religious aspects though, they have more thought behind them. Time and energy was clearly spent when it came to building up Traum’s religious beliefs as they are the main focus of the story. Yes, there’s a lot of inspiration from the Catholic church. Catholicism is the basis for religion in this world, and while that inspiration is very clear, Rachel Gillig adds so many little details that are wholly unique.

I also commend Rachel Gillig for choosing a slow pace for The Knight and the Moth. Roughly the first hundred pages are spent getting to know Sybil and her fellow Diviners. Had the author not done this, the Diviners would appear almost less human given their religious jobs. The people of Traum put the Diviners on a heavenly pedestal when in actuality most of them are your average college aged woman. Spending chapters and chapters with them helped humanize them. While I was anxious to begin learning why the Diviners were taken and what happened to them, the slow pace kept me reading and like characters readers sadly never see again.

Claps for Rachel Gillig please!

Things do pick up by the time Sybil leaves the abbey. Once her hero’s journey properly begins, when she and her friends are questing for the Omens’ divine items, the pace indeed picks up. Sybil and friends have to fight through six Omens after all, that does take some time, but Rachel Gillig still manages to keep events occurring at a slower pace. It would have been so easy for the characters to kill an Omen every other chapter, instead time is spent resting and recovering, having the enemies-to-lovers flirt, having Sybil learn how to fight. I greatly appreciate The Knight and the Moth taking its time.

With all that said, the novel has faults. Namely, The Knight and the Moth is incredibly cheesy. I said at the beginning of this review that the book is incredibly trope-y. It has everything a romantasy reader could want. And as cheesy as the novel is, it is also incredibly predictable. I said many times in this review that I wanted to know how and why Sybil’s fellow Diviners were disappearing…yeah…I guessed they were being killed by the Abbess well before the halfway mark. I fear it was obvious. As was the reveal of book two’s villain at the end of story.

But this book was so much fun! I know it’s cheesy, I guessed quite a few things well before they occurred, but I had a fabulous time. The relationship between Sybil and Rory, who I did fail to mention this entire time, had me kicking my feet and twirling my hair. I cared about these characters. I wanted Sybil to get retribution for herself and the five other Diviners. I don’t think The Knight and the Moth is a “good” book by any means, but it’s a good book in my eyes because I had the best time with it.

How this book made me feel:

With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you very much for joining me today, Book Nerds. I hope you all had a great time here this week. I will see you all again next Wednesday with another new post. If you can’t wait that long then I highly suggest giving Reading Has Ruined My Life a follow over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily so come back often to revel in literary goodness. You can also follow the blog on Twitter and BlueSky (@RHRMLBlog). If you want something not related to books, then may I suggest checking out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. The show stars me and two of my dearest friends. We talk anything and everything on the show. We’ve got episodes on Scooby-Doo, Barbie, Disney, there are also episodes on Gothic literature and medieval feminist authors. You can currently find the show on Spotify and YouTube.

Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.

See y'all then, bye!