Book Review: All the Moonlight on Earth

Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph

Rescuing his daughter from the moon has one man caught up in a multiverse of his romantic past and space travel’s future.

“Imagine…being able to step off the earth and onto the moon in one motion. Instantaneously.” That’s what Gillen thought he’d been working on for all these years: developing a portal from earth to the moon, making lunar travel and “multi-planet dwelling” possible. But after visiting his workplace, his teenage daughter Allaire disappears, having accidentally turned a dial that zapped her through the machine.

When his team contacts Allaire through a video chat, they discover it’s not as simple as sending her back through the portal, because their tech has been mixed up and messed with. Everything spirals out of control when the video feed shows her leaving the room she’s in—wherever that may be—guided by a man who looks exactly like Gillen, after which the portal locks. They then find a cryptic message questioning the true location of their paired portal. Where did Allaire teleport to, who did she just disappear with, and why? Gillen doesn’t even know where to begin asking questions.

What follows is a twisty sci-fi thriller rooted in Gillen’s family dynamics, lamenting long-lost loves, and parenting through grief. I enjoyed every second of this wild, magnificent story. The flashbacks Gillen experiences (to meeting his first love Danielle; to before Allaire’s mom Cate suddenly died) really emphasize the feeling of traveling between timelines and between worlds. I often had to pause to grasp the emotion of what was happening—sometimes for the breathtaking romance of the line; other times, at the haunting horror of the scene.

Whether emotions are up or down, this is quite a sensational read, filled to the brim with sucker punches that advance your emotional investment. All the Moonlight on Earth is slick and emotional, dramatic in a way that feels relatable; dialed up all the way. I was struck by how much heart and humanity is packed into a book exploring the most expansive and elaborate possibilities of science fiction.

All the Moonlight on Earth begins as a father-daughter tale, of a duo grieving in a visceral, transportative way, but each doing so alone. Grief, for both Gillen and Allaire, feels like a teleporting experience in itself, as they relive the overwhelming pain of Cate’s death, over and over again. Gillen also wrestles with the heartache of losing what he considers the love of his life, Danielle, who he knew before meeting Cate, through this story—most notably when parallel universes collide and an alternate version of his old life comes crashing down on him.

As a reader who spends a significant amount of time following future tech and innovation trends led by companies like Gillen’s in real life, I was delighted by the way the science and business side of this story was told. It feels true to the industry and electric with excitement at the introduction of each new concept. Even right down to the very end, Muehlbauer left me wide-eyed and breathless at the implications of the technology in this book. I felt equal parts sickened and elated by the accuracy, and the disturbing likelihood of All the Moonlight on Earth’s twisted villains (though they may call themselves visionaries) in our own world.

As brilliant as its science-fiction technology is, we are invested in All the Moonlight on Earth because the stakes are high and heavy for Gillen in every direction he turns, especially when he learns that they were “building in the wrong place, gazing back at the wrong planet…” The heart of this story is the people Gillen loves and has loved throughout his life. Because of the depth with which we connect with his heart, ours often drops at the story’s twists and turns.

I highly recommend All the Moonlight on Earth as a book club selection. You’re going to want to discuss everything about it! I kept wanting to share new progressions as I was reading: from the futuristic technology to the devastating and disorienting plot twists, to the complex love stories and the way you cannot imagine how you’d feel or what you’d do in those situations.

Though filled with so much tenderness and tumultuousness, this is what makes All the Moonlight on Earth most fun: You really cannot see each new development coming. Even if by some chance you did, the twists hit you in the most unexpected moments, knocking you back at full force each time. I often had to pause, while Gillen gasped on-page, to recalibrate what it all means and consider the multiverse implications.

Readers should be aware of content warnings for fatal car accidents, possible suicide, kidnapping, grief, losing a spouse or child, and difficult pregnancy. Cate, who is seen in memories all throughout this book, has a chronic pain condition that plays a significant role in Gillen’s view of her. As a reader whose body experiences a lot of the same inexplicable debilitating pain as Cate, including the sudden inability to move and the occasional limp, reading her from Gillen’s perspective had my reactions fluctuating between discomfort and disappointment. At first, Gillen adores her and they enjoy enthralling sex, knowing she has a limp because of pain, but it seems like after he sees her in pain for longer periods of time, he can only pity her. That is hard to read, not because it’s true of many in reality, but because it isn’t always clear if the novel knows that these are not heroic characteristics. Gillen describes Cate as “fragile,” “frail,” and having “a body uncooperative for daily living.” Gillen is not a perfect character, and I don’t think he’s meant to be. He indulges in acts of infidelity and secretly longs for his friend’s girlfriends, so it is possible to wrap these thoughts in with his view of his late-wife. Though uncomfortable, the experience feels authentic and not necessarily offensive to me, but this might be something for another disabled reader to consider depending on their headspace.

Jesse Muehlbauer has written an intensely emotional and endlessly captivating story that’s great for readers with an interest in the ethics of space-travel venture capital and high-stakes scientific advances—and a delicious parallel universe long-lost-love story. Thrilling, thought-provoking, a must-read.

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