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title: The Almost Moon

author: Alice Sebold

genre: fiction

pages: 291

first line: When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily.


published: 2007

rated: 4 out of 5

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.

The Almost Moon is a shocking story about a woman named Helen Knightly who has been taking care of her ailing mother for some time. As soon as you read the first line, you know that Helen ends up killing her sick mother. So with that information, the book takes off with Helen trying to figure out what to do with her mother's body. All the while she is having flashbacks of her life and her mothers odd behavior. It turns out her mother was suffering from severe depression from early on.

At age eleven I confided in Natalie about the way my mother behaved, and held my breath when she said her mother was the same way. I had never been so happy. But my excitement drained away when I queried further. Natalie's mother drank booze. That was enviable to me. The ease of being able to locate it in a bottle was like a dream.

While reading this book, I found myself in shock quite a few times. I almost felt like I was watching a train wreck, I knew it was bad, but I just couldn't look away. Not to say that this book was 'bad', but the author writes several graphic and shocking passages. I really was stunned. I felt bad for Helen as she recounted the memories from her childhood. However, I didn't particularly like Helen's character and I found some of the things she did to be atrocious.
I did feel bad for Helen's mother who suffered from such a horrible mental illness and her father who struggled to keep his family together.



As strange as the story was, I found Alice Sebold's writing to be exellent. Several times I found myself going back and re-reading a passage. Having said that, if I had known how intense and depressing this book was, I don't think I would have chosen to read it during my summer vacation. Now I need to read something much lighter next. This book drained me.

Morality was just a security blanket that didn't exist. All of it, what I had done and what I was doing, was not leading me perilously toward the edge of a cliff. I had already jumped.

this book has also been reviewed by serena