What if Moana broke the heart of Te Fiti?

After a devastating battle with Te Kā, Moana’s worst fears are realized: the heart of Te Fiti is in ruins, Maui is frozen in volcanic rock, and darkness threatens to envelop her beloved home. Desperate to fix things, Moana stumbles upon an island already crumbling under the blight. All life is gone, save one sole survivor—a young woman named Noe.

Moana is relieved to find another wayfarer, even if this stranger is more than a little intimidating. Better still, Noe has an idea how to fix the heart: using the tears of Te Fiti, gems infused with the goddess’s essence. The catch? The tears are said to be scattered throughout the realm of monsters.

Banded together, Moana and Noe set a course for an impossible mission to find the powerful lost tears. Will Moana be able to restore the heart amid secrets and monsters? Or will the blight overtake everything Moana holds dear?

A new author has joined the ranks of the Twisted Tales stable, and she did a great job in my opinion. Much like Lim’s Reflection, Kendall takes a turning point in the movie and has the result be a failure. Instead of returning the heart of Te Fiti, it was crushed by the volcanic hand of Te Ka. Now Maui’s stone, and Moana is cursed by Te Ka’s blight crawling up her arm. Which her grandmother tells her she has to get Te Fiti’s tears from Lalotai, the realm of monsters, in order to purify the heart.

Unlike Mulan’s journey to Diyu, Moana is not faced with mirrors reflecting her inner conflict. Rather her partner into Lalotai is Noe, the last surviving warrior of an island killed by blight. Her competence with the spear, knowledge of the ancestors’ stories and mythology, and unflinching determination sparks Moana’s imposter syndrome. The guilt of seeing Maui turned to stone due to her actions, and the ocean no longer responding to her leads to the repeated doubt-“The ocean chose wrong.”

This is amplified as the journey goes on. Her compassion for the monsters they encounter, and must defeat is derided by Noe, and by the monsters themselves. She doesn’t seize opportunity, and the more she doubts, the more she flinches away, creating a cycle. Then there’s her curse that keeps a suspenseful ticking clock throughout the novel. Although there are some points where I think she messes up at how far along the curse has gone, she kept the continuity pretty tight for 400 pages.

Lalotai’s monsters and obstacles are quite descriptive, and Kendall immerses readers into the realm. It plays out like a movie. The setting, and the fight scenes, and the spirits are easy to picture in one’s head. My one disappointment is that no mud walkers appeared. She even has some of Moana’s deadpan humor in there too.

Now spoilers are under the cut.

Moana’s new ally, Noe, keeps things close to her chest. Partly due to trauma as the last of her island, partly due to being Moana’s hyper competent contrast. At least that’s what readers are led to believe. The reveal that Noe is a ghost is well-done as the signs and seeds of suspicion are evident throughout but readers may not be able to piece it together in time so the surprise is still there. Her inclusion into the narrative continues Disney’s penchant for having redeemed villains in the new 10s.

Actually all the monsters are shown to have sympathetic sides, doing what they can do to survive, even though it means eating mortals. The only real villain is Kanapi, the soul eater. But this did not bother as Noe’s story had a clear thread and chance for her to do better at the final moment.

Still the contrast symbolism stands, but for a different reason. Since Moana didn’t get to give Te Fiti’s heart like in the movie, she finds out about the duality of Te Fiti/Te Ka in a different way. Kendall takes full advantage of probing the two sides of the same coin messaging utilizing how Te Ka’s vengeance and Noe’s grief are a dark mirror of what happens if you indulge in your darkness.

Yet as Moana learns from Kala, the guardian, such darkness is needed in order for there to be growth. How else will you evolve or change if you’re stagnant?

It all comes together when Moana falls into the realm of the darkness and really tackles the root of self-doubt, and insecurities of being ‘the chosen one.” She’s so focused on her flaws, it isn’t till she gets to meet her father’s departed friend that she can recognize the strengths in herself.

This is not only a story about two sides of the same coin, but evolution and growth. “Mistakes don’t have to be permanent” as Noe says, driving her mission, and Moana makes a new mantra of this call for the better.

It is a lengthy book, but I believe Kendall did a good job in utilizing each part, and pushes the story along and develop the characters.

4 Te Fiti’s tears