26 member(s) found this review helpful.
Other reviews of this book have given it a very poor rating. I think mine will be about the same. With that said, however, I finished it within 2 long nights of reading. There is something about the way Alice Siebold manages to almost disgust the reader, but draw them in at the same time. The title is probably the best part of the book, and I love to think about how this is portrayed in my own life (I won't spoil the one best part for you). The topic of daughters and mothers *could* have been a great one, even killing one's own mother from the despair of seeing them fail in their old age. BUT, having a mother and a father who are insane before senility arrives is a bit of a stretch and tiresome at the same time. AND, Helen, the protagonist, goes about the cover-up in a ludicrous and insane manner as well. Most of all, the acknowledgements at the back of the book were an insult, somehow, to me. Almost as if there is an inside circle, working at pulling our leg - buying and "Alice Siebold" book again just because of her first acclaimed novel, Lovely Bones. Something I won't be so quick to do on the next one.
19 member(s) found this review helpful.
After reading both Lucky and The Lovely Bones I fell in love with Sebold's ability to make her characters very real and human. The Almost Moon contains the same human elements but they are tangled in a web of madness. This is a novel about a woman growing up with parents who both suffer from mental illness and the effects that it has on her. The story jumps all around from present to past tense with little rhyme or reason and much of the impact of the story is lost in the time warp. Many things are never really resolved. I think that the majority of readers are going to be dissapointed with this novel when comparing it to her earlier works.
17 member(s) found this review helpful.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it to be a much better story, and a great deal more engrossing, than "The Lovely Bones". Also, my take on the parents is different than that of others who have written reviews here.
There is no doubt that the mother suffers from a mental illness. However, I do not believe the father also has a mental illness. My thought is that those who think this is the case have misunderstood the actual implications.
The actions of the father (and his inactions), in my opinion, simply illustrate what may inevitably result from living with someone who suffers from a mental illness. The sacrifices and adjustments made in order to placate someone like the mother in this tale would surely have serious effects on those around her. When this is considered, the narrative is, in fact, realistic.
This book was a great read, and I highly recommend it.
There is no doubt that the mother suffers from a mental illness. However, I do not believe the father also has a mental illness. My thought is that those who think this is the case have misunderstood the actual implications.
The actions of the father (and his inactions), in my opinion, simply illustrate what may inevitably result from living with someone who suffers from a mental illness. The sacrifices and adjustments made in order to placate someone like the mother in this tale would surely have serious effects on those around her. When this is considered, the narrative is, in fact, realistic.
This book was a great read, and I highly recommend it.
11 member(s) found this review helpful.
I actually found this book a good read. I can't say it was enjoyable, because it's not that type of subject matter, but there were numerous times that I totally empathized (and sympathized) with the main character.
THE ALMOST MOON is no THE LOVELY BONES, and I don't believe it was meant to be. Some people are going to like the book, and others will hate it, but I think it was a good showing of Alice Sebold's range in fiction.
THE ALMOST MOON is no THE LOVELY BONES, and I don't believe it was meant to be. Some people are going to like the book, and others will hate it, but I think it was a good showing of Alice Sebold's range in fiction.
7 member(s) found this review helpful.
I just finished this book and was quite frustrated with it. I enjoyd Sebolds other books "The Lovely Bones" and "Lucky" but this one not so much.
It is a woman who is dealing with mental illness from both of her parents but growing up she does not really know what is wrong with them. In the book the daughter is completely out-of-control and goes to a very dark place.
I am not sure if Sebold wants you to feel bad for the main character or not. It is hard to describe how I feel about her but I certainly do not like that she has committed a horrible crime. Given her upbringing I am not really that surprised but it doesn't make me feel sorry for her either.
As others have said the book jumps back and forth to present and past and sometimes with no reason why. I am glad I read it but I am also glad to pass it along to someone else.
It is a woman who is dealing with mental illness from both of her parents but growing up she does not really know what is wrong with them. In the book the daughter is completely out-of-control and goes to a very dark place.
I am not sure if Sebold wants you to feel bad for the main character or not. It is hard to describe how I feel about her but I certainly do not like that she has committed a horrible crime. Given her upbringing I am not really that surprised but it doesn't make me feel sorry for her either.
As others have said the book jumps back and forth to present and past and sometimes with no reason why. I am glad I read it but I am also glad to pass it along to someone else.
7 member(s) found this review helpful.
This book was very strange to understand as it hops back and forth from present to past constantly. The ending confused/frustrated me. I hope someone else can enjoy it.
5 member(s) found this review helpful.
Couldn't get past the first chapter. The author wasn't doing a bad job writing it, but the story was just too sad to even consider dealing with. I might pick it up again if I need to become severely depressed.
5 member(s) found this review helpful.
This is a tough book to review. I didn't like it near as much as her first novel (lovely bones) or her second (lucky me). I will say, it is a very hard book to stop reading, to give up on. I was frustrated at times by the flash backs and flash forwards. I will promise you this: You will never read another book like this. It is a very raw, honest and masterfully told story. I'm glad I read it.
Glad Mrs. Sebold wrote it. I was caught up in the words and pages, what more do you want from the book in your hands?
Glad Mrs. Sebold wrote it. I was caught up in the words and pages, what more do you want from the book in your hands?
5 member(s) found this review helpful.
I thought this book was okay. Not quite as good as Lucky or Lovely Bones, but similar. It is definitely not the Young Adult book that LB was. I found the lead character interesting...she is a nude model for a living. I also enjoyed that she was an older woman with middle aged children...I don't think the story could be the same if she were younger. The jumping around from past to present was a little hard to follow, but not bad. I'm not sure how I felt about the ending.....
4 member(s) found this review helpful.
The book doesn't justify murder, but it explains a lifetime that led up to that one act. Explaining something doesn't mean you condone it. I was fascinated with this book, so I stuck with it till the end. It left me rather sad.
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
Alice Sebold has a talent to draw in, yet thoroughly disgust her readers. Her stories are like a car crash that you just can't seem to pull your eyes away from. I managed to get through The Lovely Bones. However, this book just got too graphic for me and after the first few chapters I gave up, not wanting to retain the mental images she was creating for me. The preview for this book tried to make this about a mother/daughter relationship... obviously a very dysfunctional one! I think I am done with Alice Sebold novels.
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
Well, I went into this book with an open mind because I loved "Lucky" and "The Lovely Bones" but let me just say, this book was a BIG disappointment. I thought it was annoying and unrealistic and I really had to struggle to even finish it. Dumb.
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
I was a little disappointed in that I loved The Lovely Bones so much, I guess I was expecting Alice Sebold's follow-up to be just as good. The story of a woman who kills her senile mother and what happens in the following 24 hours was still an enjoyable read, though. The book takes the reader back in time throughout the narrator's past to times that help the reader to understand how she got to this place in her life.
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
I didn't think this book was as good as "The Lovely Bones". It was ok and pretty quick reading.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
I didn't set out to compare this book to The Lovely Bones, because the stories are not similar at all. But, I really really really disliked this book. The protagonist Helen is unsympathetic, non-sensical, and never delves any deeper into her mother's problems. In fact, in almost 300 paged, it seems that the author never gets beyond "Mother crazy, Daughter kills her, Father stressed out." I was also insulted by the acknowledgements. The sense that there is an "inner santum" for Ms. Sebold absolutely excludes the reader. I don't expect a thank you for reading her book, but perhaps the end of your second novel is not the best place to suddenly start speaking in code.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
This book did not impress me. It seemed to almost but not quite, scratch the surface of characters and in parts was hard to follow. You never quite get a clear picture of the main characters life now. The author never quite makes clear what her intention is with the story - should we feel sorry for her? After reading this book, I think the main character has just as many issues as her parents but is not willing to admit it.
2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Ohhhhh, this is not a good book. The main character kills her mother and then the story weaves back and forth in time, attempting to shed light on the justification of the matricide. The understanding never came, at least not for me. Disturbing, distasteful, a complete waste of my time. Not at all emotionally wrenching nor suspenseful (it is so unlike the haunting narrative found within "The Lovely Bones"). Just disgusting.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I love the way Alice Sebold writes. She has a way of making dark and violent content very inviting. This is the third book of hers that I have just been unable to put down for any length of time. This one took me just two days to read. This book was fascinating and I would have given it 4 stars if only it wasn't left open-ended. I absolutely loathe the "it-could-end-any-number-of-ways-so-pick-your-favorite" endings; I've spent my time reading the book and I feel I'm entitled to an actual ending. Humph!
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
If you like a "quick read", you won't like this book. There is no "tightly plotted action that pulls the narrative forward", and none of the central characters can be adequately described by three adjectives and a noun which tell you what the narrator and the larger world think about them. Sebold gives you the facts as they happen, and then loops back through history, so that your moral assessment and empathetic reactions evolve. The writing is not difficult; you can read all the words inside a few hours. But to do it justice, you will have to stop and think through your reactions to it after almost every chapter. Much of the significance of the story is not actually written down.
Distasteful or not, almost every note rings true throughout. Fifty years from now, this will be a minor classic of the western canon.
Distasteful or not, almost every note rings true throughout. Fifty years from now, this will be a minor classic of the western canon.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
The Lovely Bones by Sebold is my favorite book. I had long awaited her new book and bought it the day it came out. It is the biggest disappointment of my literary life. Dreary and dull. I felt guily mailing it to the requesting member.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
A truly terrible read. As fine as her first book was, this one misses the boat. Tedious and annoying.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I have read Alice's other 2 books and really enjoyed then. Not so much this book. Gruesome story, plus really boring. While I hope author puts out more books, I hope they are better then this one.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
After falling in love with Alice Sebold this book was disappointing.... I couldn't even finish reading it.... No nearly as good as Lucky and The Lovely bones....
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Like her other books, this starts off with a "kick-your-teeth-in" incident.The narrator then proceeds to careen out of control until the unsatisfying ending. This wasn't really a bad book--I did, after all, finish it--but it didn't live up to "The Lovely Bones". She can do better.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
After having read The Lovely Bones and having enjoyed that book, I was disappointed by The Almost Moon. It sometimes seemed to drag and just failed to intrigue me overall. And the end was a big disappointment.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I was very hopeful that this story was going to be great because I really enjoyed Lovely Bones. The story skipped around and left me confused and frustrated. By the end of the story, I hated Helen and her entire family and couldn't wait to swap this book.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I must say, I'm a little disappointed...I LOVED Lovely Bones and Lucky. The first third of the book really drew me in; I couldn't put the book down. But from there, the story really seemed to wander. I don't want to give anything away, but I really wasn't satisfied with the ending. I guess I would say I liked the book, but if you loved the other two books--like I did--you might want to skip this one.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Waste of time. All I kept thinking throughout this book is "Why am I reading this?". This could have been a great story but was ruined by the main characters morbid & disturbing thoughts. The beginning was hard to get through. Then just when it was getting good, she would throw in some random morbid thought that made you just want to put the book down in frustration. I only finished this book because it was short. And yes the ending was just as disappointing. Sebold was way off the mark with this one.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I enjoyed her first two books, but did not care for this book, I thought it was very strange, and had a hard time finishing it. The ending was terrible, this book was a big disappointment.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I read reviews before I got this book. I thought maybe those people are just harder to please than I am...nope. This book is awful. I only finished it because I wanted to see how it ended. It was confusing (flashbacks with poor transitions) and it wasn't well written. Sebold had all sorts of plots, and it seemed she tried to find more and more ways to make you hate the main character. I suggest you don't waste your time on this one.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I have to admit that I really did NOT like any part this book. It was creepy and strange and convoluted...and I wondered if ANYone would like it. But, there are many reviews that show that people liked it, so it just goes to show you that one man's "thumbs down!" is another's "thumbs up!"
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I did not like this book at all. It was not in the same class as, The Lovely Bones,very dissapointing and depressing.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
This was the first Sebold book I've read, and I think introducing myself to her through this book was a terrible mistake. I thought her writing style was great, so I would give another book a chance, but I absolutely hated this story. I don't even know why I finished it...? I guess I was hoping it would get better, and it never did, really. Definitely not my cup of tea. As other reviewers said, I guess the story had to go the way it did with the elements of insanity involved, but i just didn't like it.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
After reading reviews here and on Amazon, I was fully prepared to DESPISE this book. Call it the masochist in me, but I like a challenge sometimes. This book gave no pain at all. A great read; engrossing, heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. I found some parts a little creepy (The 'friend's son' incident) but it reads unpretentiously and satisfyingly. Sebold does a great job of making the reader feel the desperation of the main character without overdoing the suspense. Recommended!
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I hated this book. i didn't even get past page 50, however, it's very similar to her other books, so if you liked her other stuff I imagine you would like this. For me it's her writing style that I didn't like.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
It was horrible. I stopped reading in half way in. It is nothing like her other books.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Very disappointing. I just didn't get it. This is a story about a woman who murders her mother and the mental illness in her family. I could't identify with the characters and didn't really care what happened.
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
Although this was a dark novel: it was another triumph by Alice Sebold. This book is a great account of how a woman who had been manipulated by her mother all her life finally is free: at least physically.
I really was impressed again by Sebold' storytelling ability!
I really was impressed again by Sebold' storytelling ability!
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
This book did not impress me. It seemed to almost but not quite, scratch the surface of characters and in parts was hard to follow. You never quite get a clear picture of the main characters life now. The author never quite makes clear what her intention is with the story - should we feel sorry for her? After reading this book, I think the main character has just as many issues as her parents but is not willing to admit it.
I loved The Lovely Bones and I purchased this book solely on that recommendation alone. I liked this book, but it was not the same type of book and in many ways I had a much harder time with it than the authors debut book.
As the reader, we know from the book jacket that Helen murders her mother – but that fact was still a bit of a surprise to me. I think somehow I thought maybe it was just a metaphor, or somehow Helen was living in a fantasy world to an extent and performed this act there. Because this is a very real event in this book, it made the whole thing very difficult for me from the start.
To read the rest of my review, please visit my blog.
As the reader, we know from the book jacket that Helen murders her mother – but that fact was still a bit of a surprise to me. I think somehow I thought maybe it was just a metaphor, or somehow Helen was living in a fantasy world to an extent and performed this act there. Because this is a very real event in this book, it made the whole thing very difficult for me from the start.
To read the rest of my review, please visit my blog.
Dark, intense, yet there seems to be a distance in the character while telling of her heinous crime and what follows; leaving us to wonder if it really was a crime. Alice Sebold''s writing is memorable, yet disturbing.
HATED IT.
kind of hard to get into but good once you get going.
I could not get through this one. I really gave it my best shot but quickly became disgusted with the detailed descriptions. I do enjoy the occasional heart tearing novel, but this, I just couldn't do it.
this book was not nearly as wonderful as Lovely Bones was. i went into it knowing that it wouldn't be, and i tried hard to like it, but it just didn't feel real to me. and as a person who works with dementia patients, i found the story and the main characters' actions insincere and somewhat offensive.
Amazing and riveting! VERY deep and emotional book. You will be appalled and amazed by this book at the very same time.
This is a very dark journey into insanity. I enjoyed "The Lovely Bones", but found reading this all the way through the equivalent of watching a horrible train wreck in slow motion and not being able to look away. It compels you to keep reading, despite how disturbing it is, to find out where it is going to lead, but it is not worth it. A very dark and disturbing book that left me feeling depressed and wishing I had never read it.
I love Alice Sebold but I must say I was very dissappointed in this book. I don't like the way she left you hanging at the end. Not my kind of book.
Read more of my review here: http://readersenchantment.blogspot.com/2010/03/almost-moon-by-alice-sebold.html
I did not like Helen, and this book will be traded shortly. But Sebold did keep me reading until the last page and thinking about the characters even after I closed the cover. For that reason, I'd say this was a successful novel. Sebold is, in my opinion, a fantastic author who is not afraid to write about the grittier side of life. We live in a world of chaos where bad things happen to good people, and she brings that realism into her novels. This book has only a 2.5 stars rating on Amazon and on PBS, but I'm giving it a 3.5. If you like books that make you think and examine life, then this is a recommended read for you.
I did not like Helen, and this book will be traded shortly. But Sebold did keep me reading until the last page and thinking about the characters even after I closed the cover. For that reason, I'd say this was a successful novel. Sebold is, in my opinion, a fantastic author who is not afraid to write about the grittier side of life. We live in a world of chaos where bad things happen to good people, and she brings that realism into her novels. This book has only a 2.5 stars rating on Amazon and on PBS, but I'm giving it a 3.5. If you like books that make you think and examine life, then this is a recommended read for you.
This book has alot of twists and deep thinking.
So many that review this book are disgusted with the fact that the main character kills her mother and they don't feel her reason was justified. I'm wondering if maybe they understood too well the love/hate realtionship and are afraid the story hit to close to home. Yes she kills her mom, partly because she loves her so much and does not want to subject her to fear, humiliation and discomfort. Party because her mother was a miserable mentally ill person whose illness deprived her of a childhood and father.
This book is not light or easy to read but it is well written and honest. If you read LUCKY I think the main chacater in this book will be easier to understand and forgivce.
This book is not light or easy to read but it is well written and honest. If you read LUCKY I think the main chacater in this book will be easier to understand and forgivce.
I was very disappointed when I read this book. I was surprised I even decided to go ahead and finish it. I loved the authors previous books and this one left me without a smile and I had to push to get through it.
It's about a woman who suffocates her mother that she's been taking care of--mentally ill mother, and now her mother is elderly and cannot take care of herself. The character in this book just seemed a little too far out there for me to connect with.
It's about a woman who suffocates her mother that she's been taking care of--mentally ill mother, and now her mother is elderly and cannot take care of herself. The character in this book just seemed a little too far out there for me to connect with.
Bizzare, wow and true to her writing style. Great read as are all of her books.
While I love Alice Sebold, this wasn't my favorite from her. It didn't "hook" me the way The Lovely Bones or Lukcy did. I did still enjoy her writing style in this book but found myself pretty angry at the way the book ended. If you like Sebold, it's worth your time to read, but if you haven't already gotten to know this author, don't use this book to do it. I highly recommend The Lovely Bones if you'd like to try her books.
This is a tough book to review. I didn't like it near as much as her first novel (lovely bones) or her second (lucky me). I will say, it is a very hard book to stop reading, to give up on. I was frustrated at times by the flash backs and flash forwards. I will promise you this: You will never read another book like this. It is a very raw, honest and masterfully told story. I'm glad I read it.
Glad Mrs. Sebold wrote it. I was caught up in the words and pages, what more do you want from the book in your hands?
Glad Mrs. Sebold wrote it. I was caught up in the words and pages, what more do you want from the book in your hands?
A great read, even though the story is disturbing it was hard to put down. I enjoyed Sebold's other novel, The Lovely Bones, so I picked this up from the library.
I have read both of Alice Sebold's other books and liked them. This one, I thought was creepy. She writes so well about "crazy" that the reader gets really caught up in it. The book just left me feeling unsettled, probably because I think that the crime was justified.