Moonlight and Dust

Moonlight and Dust by Jasmin McGaughey. Allen & Unwin 2025. Large YA Paperback. RRP $24.99. ISBN 9781761181337

Reviewed by Debra Williams

‘Choose a power, pay the price.’ There is something dangerous in the air. It shimmers in the night, wrapped in the warm, humid breeze. I stand on the kerb outside my cousin’s house waiting for my sister.

16-year-old Zillah is a Torres Strait Islander caught up in a world of exclusive high school parties, after her 18-year-old sister Nikola has a mysterious accident. Nik is now comatose, and Zillah wants answers.

Zillah has returned home to Cairns after attending school in Queensland. She is enrolled at a local high school, Craigmont High. She is a quiet, shy girl, who struggles to make friends, unlike her rebellious big sister. However, she does connect with a small group, especially Nik’s friend Artie, and is invited to exclusive high school parties, where the attendees can purchase Moondust, an illicit magic-inducing sparkling elixir with dreamlike properties.

Determined to fit in, Zillah seeks out the secrets of the after-hours school parties. Could Moondust have something to do with Nik’s accident? To find out, she must plunge further into an arcane world and take out-of-character risks. Zillah and her friends are perturbed by the fact that people’s memories are being erased, and need to get to the bottom of it

As Zillah forges friendships, she is not entirely sure whom she can trust. She eventually discovers that one of the teachers at the school is the supplier of this ‘magical’ elixir, but he isn’t acting alone. When she uses one of the varieties of Moondust to bring her sister out of her coma, the group of friends must band together to stop the supply chain.

This is a debut YA novel by the author of the Little Ash (Barty) series. The publisher has it billed as, ‘For fans of kick-arse girls, enigmatic boys, true friendships, family secrets and illicit magic.’