Evocative story that explores alienation, dreams, reality, and friendship. ( )

Crescent Moon by Haruko Iida started here in 2004 and is an amusing fantasy/adventure with a bunch of characters with some major back stories. Mahiru Shiraishi is a young girl who, for some reason, brings good luck to anyone she touches (except herself). She has dreams and/or memories of a song about a promise to a demon which she doesn't understand. She ends up meeting a tribe of the Lunar Race consisting of a bat, a werewolf, a vampire, a tengu, and a fox. They need her to help them retrieve the "Teardrops of the Moon" to save their race. It's a cute story and I enjoy following the adventures and angst, however, not enough to keep buying it. I'm getting it through interlibrary loan. The guys aren't terribly hot (well, what do you expect?) and one I keep thinking is a girl. The only cute animal is a little bat which shows up later in the series. I got very confused at the beginning and had to read it several times to finally get the gist of it all, however, as I went along, things became clearer and now I can keep everyone straight. I like following the emerging story between Mahiru and the Tengu. ( )