The Almost Moon: A Novel | Alice Sebold

The Almost Moon: A Novel | Alice Sebold | Another Great Book by Alice Sebold

books:

The Almost Moon: A...

	The Almost Moon: A Novel Alice Sebold Little, Brown and Company, 2007 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 150 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable in this brilliant, powerful, and unforgettable new novel by the author of The Lovely Bones and Lucky. For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate. It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.

for more information click here

Well, *I* liked it!

Alice Sebold's The Almost Moon starts with a murder, a clumsy, unpremeditated affair that happens almost naturally. It was easy, Helen Knightly tells us in the book's first sentence:

"When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily."

It's a sentence that makes you want to read more. The book continues:

"Dementia, as it descends, has a way of revealing the core of the person affected by it. My mother's core was rotten like the brackish water at the bottom of a weeks-old vase of flowers. She had been beautiful when my father met her and still capable of love when I became their late-in-life child, but by the time she gazed up at me that day, none of this mattered."

One paragraph in and it's clear that you're in for something special.

What follows that delicious opening is the story of how Helen came to kill her mother--the toll that Claire's mental illness took on the family over decades, its unexpected consequences, the mental abuse, the exhausting intensity of Helen's love-hate relationship with her mother. This back story is interspersed with the continuing story of what's going on in the present: what Helen does immediately after the murder (whatever you're thinking, you're wrong), the eventual discovery of the body by outsiders.

That Helen commits murder so clumsily, with only the most amateurish attempt made to cover it up, is a great strength of the book, I think. This is the sort of mess that a real person might make of matricide. And while Helen's behavior after the fact seems bizarre, that too lends the story credence. Who in such circumstances would be fully sane?

While The Almost Moon is not a suspense novel per se, it is certainly suspenseful. What will become of Helen, given the murder investigation and her own feelings of...not quite remorse, is never clear, not until the book's last page. And when it comes the ending is, really, just right. This one's highly recommended.

-- Debra Hamel

for more information click here

Another Great Book by Alice Sebold

I have read The Lovely Bones (which is still my favorite) as well as Lucky and now comes this book (which oddly enough my mother bought me for Christmas.) It did not dissapoint! Although it was anything but normal, it was amazing. I don't think people read Sebold's books to read "normal." I enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down. If you are looking for something different, this book is the way to go!

Good Read

Glad I gave this book a try. I found it compelling and couldn't wait to get the answers to Helen's darkness.

hang in there with this one

I was drawn to this novel because I so enjoyed reading 'The Lovely Bones'. The writing was very good and I liked the way the story was told by the victim. When I stared reading 'The Almost Moon' I will admit that I winced and squirmed a bit while the main character revealed herself and her life with mother. I even came to Amazon to read reviews from other readers just to see if I was getting it and whether or not I should continue reading. Reviews were mixed, so I continued. That turned out to be a very good move on my part. I became more and more immersed in Helen and had to find out what had led her to commit such a crime. I was not disappointed in the least.

I will recommend this to most people I know because you can't find a better "character study" author than Sebold. She brings you in quickly and talk about "things that make you go Hmmm". She makes you wonder how you would react to situations and makes you also wonder how you would have turned out given these hideous circumstances.

Hang in there if you're in doubt and wrap your head around Helen's life. It's worth the trip.

for more information click here

except for the ending

I love a dark book and this was definitely one of them. A crazy lady with an even crazier mom, always good. I've got to say though, the ending was just awful. It's frustrating to know you could have ended a book much better than the author. I've also read "Lovely Bones" and there was a part towards the end that was the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. I don't think I'll be reading any more Alice Sebold.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

products you might be interested in