“Shoot the moon”

“Shoot the moon” names the ambitious Hearts strategy Ava keeps attempting despite lacking the skill to carry it off. In her childhood memory of playing cards with her mother and Benny, the phrase becomes more than a game plan: it captures her attraction to a glorious, all-or-nothing victory, even when a more cautious approach might be wiser.

Meaning and Use

In Hearts, shooting the moon means trying to take all the penalty cards rather than avoiding them. The distinction matters in Ava’s account: she is not merely trying to win a hand by ordinary play, but reaching for the largest possible triumph. She says she is “always attempting to shoot the moon,” while admitting she lacks the skill to succeed. Ambition and failure are present together from the outset.

A Childhood Game with Benny

The expression is rooted in a domestic scene after dinner. Ava, her mother, and Benny have put their empty plates in the sink and sit down to play Hearts. Benny advises Ava to play conservatively and stop being flashy, but she answers, “I want the glory of the slaughter.” The line makes the attraction explicit: the appeal lies not just in winning, but in the scale and drama of the win. Her mother laughs, and Benny joins her before beginning to explain his strategy again. The shared amusement gives the risky impulse a warm, familial setting, even as Benny’s advice makes clear that Ava is unlikely to succeed by playing that way.

Chapter Heading and Contrast

“Shoot the moon” also appears as the heading for a chapter that opens with Ava physically incapacitated: disoriented, struggling to use her phone, and sick in the bathroom, with Lock holding her and trying to keep her awake. The chapter then moves into the remembered card game with Benny. Set beside that vulnerable present, the childhood phrase evokes a bold appetite for victory; the contrast is between the scale of the ambition and the limits imposed by circumstance. The evidence establishes the phrase as both a recurring game aspiration and a chapter title, without making the card game itself a literal explanation of Ava’s present predicament.