the almost moon.

Last year I didn’t finish four books which is an embarrassing number for me… I say that because I *struggled* to finish The Almost Moon- starting and finishing three books in the process… Another thing I try to avoid.

I read Lucky when I was a sophomore in college and loved its gritty honesty. I read The Lovely Bones (along with the rest of the world) right before the movie adaptation came out. I was excited to see The Almost Moon at a library yearly sales for $.50 and snapped it up.

I had a strange sense of deja vu reading the first chapter of Almost Moon, it was previewed in the back of my copy of The Lovely Bones and probably read years ago,  but for a moment I thought ‘have I read this before and forgotten, or start and never finish?’ The Almost Moon is the story of a woman who killed her mentally ill, verbally abusive, dying (but not fast enough!) mother. She’s a terrible person who, after killing her mom, continues to make terrible life decisions that make you want to kill a fictional character. There’s a lot of flashbacks to her childhood (the start of her mother’s mental deterioration and her fathers suicide) as well the start of the relationship with her now ex husband who comes when she calls after the murder. I’m not a big fan of that style so it added another irritation.

After I was invested (75 pages in and a resolve not to give up on a book this year) I saw on Goodreads that this novel had a 2.7 rating and some pitiful reviews. I concur- 1 star, do not recommend!