Almost Moon: A Novel

An intelligent, generous, and essentially loving person finds herself cutting a long braid from her mother's head…having just killed her. So goes the opening scene in Alice Sebold's new book, The Almost Moon. In her newest novel, Sebold, the author of The Lovely Bones, draws us into a mother-daughter story which is at once unique and universal.

In a moment of passionate desperation, Helen Knightly suffocates her mother with a bundle of towels. The murder wasn't something she planned (though heaven knows she often said to herself "I could just kill her"). Nor, as it turns out, is it something she regrets. As we become privy to the complicated emotions which characterize Helen's feelings about her mother, we come to understand the burden of having grown up with a dysfunctional mother ill-equipped for her role.

Over a 24-hour period, as Helen decides exactly what to do with her mother's body, she brings us fully into her life, and to the experiences which have formed her as a full grown woman. We meet Jake, her ex-husband, who comes to help her deal with both the physical dilemma of her mother's body as well as the emotional (and life) implications of what she has done. Clearly, their marriage was a love-hate relationship but at this point it has a tenderness that almost makes one yearn for a great ex. We also come to know Helen's best friend since childhood, Natalie. The two of them are quite the duo...smart, feisty women that have the kind of bond and intimacy that can only come through years of shared life experiences. They have talked about everything...or almost everything. And we meet Alice's current lover, a twenty-something hunk who is almost a cliche, but who cares given he can generate such heat.

Sebold is a master storyteller. Her prose is clean, unencumbered by excess pathos and fast paced. And her characters are both believable and engaging. This is a great read.

A bit strange. It wasn't my favorite book.

I seldom take books out from the library, I take out a lot of Audio books but not actual paper books. It always seems that the popular books are always not available or on a VERY long waiting list where you have to wait ages to get them. So when I saw The Almost Moon By Alice Sebold sitting there in the "library staff recommends" section I was happy because Alice Sebold has written lovely bones and I thought it was a GREAT book.

I am sorry to say that the book disappointed me. It was so meh.

It is a story about a woman who on an impulse kills her 80 something year old mother. Don't worry I didn't spoil anything because this happens right as soon as the book starts.

The first half of the book goes on and on. It felt like it dragged on forever. It was very disconnected and all over the place. I usually can follow a plot quiet easily but the first part of the book left me very confused.

The second half of the book was alright. Nothing to write home about.

All in all the book was messy and all over the place. I didn't connect with the characters, some parts were far-fetched and the ending was anti climatic.

If I didn't love the authors earlier book I most probably would have passed by it at the library and not given it a second thought.

The Almost Moon is the second book I’ve read by Alice Sebold (the other being The Lovely Bones). This book was a bit like watching a train wreck – you couldn’t really believe what was happening but you couldn’t look away. The main character is not terribly sympathetic – we meet her right after she has killed her elderly mother – but we can all recognize the humanity in her. Sebold is clearly a writer in a different category from most. She tackles the most unusual story lines and holds the reader for the entire novel. While I enjoyed The Lovely Bones more, if enjoy is the right word to use with Sebold’s novel topics, I still found this book to be a very good read.