The Almost Moon: A Novel

I loved "Lucky" and "The Lovely Bones" but this book was so painful to read that I couldn't even finish it.

The novel was dark and creepy. I could almost feel the protaganist's mind unhinging as she slipped over the brink from hating the constraints of her life trapped as a caregiver to an elderly, mentally ill mother to actually doing something about it.

The story could have been a great thriller, a real look inside of the mind not of the stereotypical killer, but of a woman slowly pushed to the breaking point via years of not having needs met.

What was maddening is that it meandered along with many accomplices and betrayals along the way that were just not believeable. That Helen did not feel any trepidation about hanging around with her mother's newly killed corpse and giving it a bath before dragging it around the house was a clever way of telling the reader that yep, Helen had indeed lost her mind. That Helen's former husband demonstrated equal ease in hanging out in an empty house with his newly-killed ex-mother-in-law took the his character from plausible to just convenient. Nobody in this book seemed to find spending time with the recently killed to be remotely disturbing. Yuck.

Still, I slogged through, finding out more and more eerie, creepy things about the main character's family. The reason I toughed it out was because there was one main question threading through the entire novel...would Helen be found out as the murderer, or would she go free?

In the end, the reader is not given any satisfaction, any closure at all, about this question. It was that moment that made me want to throw the book across the room...I felt the reader had been had, had been duped into searching for an answer that would not be provided. For the disturbing images and implausible situations we were forced to endure, we deserve a decent ending.

It is indeed a case of a sophomore slump for Sebold... having written such a compelling novel like 'The Lovely Bones', it's invevitable that any work that follows would be compared to it - perhaps unfairly.

In 'The Almost Moon', Sebold tries to get into the psyche of how a woman could be driven to murder her own mother. However, instead of gaining reader empathy, the protagonist, Helen, annoys us with her constant 'I just killed my mother, you know' refrain for the next 24 hours that the story takes place in.

She not only gets her ex-husband involved in her heinous act by playing the victim calling for help, she also sleeps with her best friend's son, Hamish, then dumps the unwanted truth on her younger daughter Sarah, who had unwittingly come for a visit, and then dumps her as well at a bar, to sleep with Hamish again, in exchange for a getaway car.

I'm not sure if the protagonist is seeking for moral redemption or escape from her real self, but she comes across as a self-involved character who tries to dispense her guilt on the people around her. The fact that her own father had killed himself - driven to madness by her crazy mother - begs for a reprisal that Helen, disappointingly fails to do, by the end of the book.

The novel's mood is predominantly dark, but it's got its light feelings here and there. As the child of Sebold, with ancestries linking from Lucky, a very dark, very frank, very brutal memoir about rape, and The Lovely Bones, a lighter tale on a similar topic: the rape/murder of a young girl and the impact it has on those who knew her - it's not surprising that this novel came out the way it did. I like to think of Sebold as an "deep, dark issues" sort of writer with a mother complex. If you compare her use of mothers in her previous works, it wouldn't shock a reader when they read Almost Moon.

Almost Moon is confusing, and sometimes a little annoying. By the time you're almost done with it, you're in a race to finish it, find the ending, and be done with it. It hurts, and it makes you angry, and it reminds you of your own relationship with your parents - and your childhood, which a lot of people might want to forget... at least the bad stuff. Almost Moon surfaces that stuff up, and I think that's why a majority of people looking for an instant Sebold classic will be disappointed in this novel: the ending is ambiguous, just like the motives of the daughter who kills her mother. We're not sure what exactly happens and we're left to our own devices. I hate it when an author does that, but maybe it keeps the spirit of imagination alive - and keeps us talking about the book.

I felt really bad for the main character. She was so messed up from her childhood with her mother that it warped her sense of justice entirely. She couldn't move on from Point A to Point B like any other person would. So there's plenty of pity and almost dislike for her.

I would suggest you buy it used, or check it out from a library like I did. I don't think I would've been satisfied paying money for this. But it doesn't turn me off Sebold. If she came out with another book, I'd read it. She's like the Ice Cream Man: Many flavors, all are delicious - some to everyone, many to specific individuals, and a few to those unique tastebuds that can handle the explosion of bitterness. Who knows... maybe that next book of hers is my flavor!

This is an excellent book. The subject matter may be what causes the angst in some of the readers (dealing with mental illness within the family). But, that's why I enjoy all of Alice's books. She handles dark topics exceptionally well. In her words I feel the fear, frustration, and moral dilemmas that her characters are experiencing. Don't avoid this book. If you liked "The Lovely Bones" and "Lucky" I promise you will enjoy this one as well.