Therese Walsh

THE MOON SISTERS is a remarkable story of two sisters who are grieving the loss of their mother while their father is drowning his sorrow in vodka. Jazz and her younger sister Olivia can’t seem to stop battling over one thing or another – Jazz’s new job at the funeral home where their mother’s wake took place; Olivia, legally blind, determined to find an ending for their mother’s novel in remote Cranberry Glades in the mountains of West Virginia. Jazz reluctantly follows Olivia who show more hops a train and meets Hobbs, a tattooed young man, whom Olivia falls for, much to Jazz’s dismay. After all, they know nothing about him or his past. While trying to protect Olivia and convince her to go home, Jazz becomes as embroiled in Olivia’s struggle to find the spot where their mother believed she would find the conclusion to her life’s work.
When I read Walsh’s debut novel THE LAST WILL OF MOIRA LEAHY, I was drawn in and thought I was reading one of the best novels I had ever opened. However, I was unprepared for the complexity of the storytelling in THE MOON SISTERS. This is writing at its finest! The story is woven between bits of past family history and the story of their quest for closure. It is a highly emotional read that will keep your attention from page one to the end of the book. This will surely be among the top books of 2014. show less

Set in small town/rural West Virginia, sisters Olivia and Jazz Moon journey in search of a will o' the wisp, and perhaps, answers to their mother's apparent suicide.

Disclaimer #1: I received a free copy of this novel via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Disclaimer #2: I "know" the author, via FaceBook, and through participation in the WriterUnboxed group there, and on the WU main website.

Like a will o' the wisp, this novel is hard to pin down. There are many enchanting themes and show more ideas here: Olivia's synethesia, a condition in which the senses blend, so that sounds are also seen, sights are also tasted, and so on. There's the writer's journey/struggle, experienced through memories and letters left by their mother, Beth, who seemed to also be dealing with Depression and deep hurt from her own family of origin. There's disability, because Olivia has deliberately damaged her eyesight and so is legally blind, partially sighted. There's dealing with grief and self-blame in the wake of Beth's death; there's train-hopping and a bit of romance, a tattooed man and a bounty hunter, an unfinished fairy tale, a scenic tour of West Virginia and the bogs...

Much of this novel I loved. The descriptions in Olivia's voice were especially lyrical and lovely: "There was a sort of comfort to having him nearby, this green-eyed boy with a voice that curved like a hammock, that made me want to crawl right into it and lie down."

However, the pacing felt slow, despite an ostensibly ticking clock in the form of a job that Jazz had to get back to (which I never really understood her compulsion to take that particular job, at that time), and I didn't feel I KNEW Jazz as well as I knew Olivia, or even Beth, the dead mother.

There IS some sex, but not often, and it's not particularly explicit or erotic. The level of (non)detail here works well with the language and style of this novel.

The last 20% or so was much faster paced and kept me turning pages, much of it being a surprise and yet well-set up, so that the ending felt very satisfying. I love when books do that. All in all, a very GoodRead. :) show less

Set in the mountains of rural West Virginia, "The Moon Sisters" introduces readers to Olivia and Jazz Moon, sisters as unlike as can be. Olivia is a dreamer and Jazz is a thinker. As such, each responds to the recent, questionable death of their mother in starkly different ways.
The circumstances surrounding the death brings many family issues to light - things that are more comfortably left in the dark.

As they grieve, each daughter imagines a different forward journey: Jazz sprints show more towards the future in order to ditch the past, while Olivia delves backwards into the past through their mother's writings. What develops is an unlikely road trip that becomes a test of the bonds of sisterhood and family, begging the questions: in what ways are we responsible for each other, and how far are we expected to go to hold each other up?

"The Moon Sisters" is an lovely story about differing perspectives and the realities that attend them. An individual perspective isn't whole unto itself. As Olivia and Jazz demonstrate, sometimes each perspective is merely a piece of something bigger, something that requires a variety shapes and colors to complete.

The engaging twists and turns of this novel leave the reader satisfyied and uplifted. This is gentle read that flirts with magical realism, but suggests that real magic is found in love's journey towards inner and relational peace.

This would be a book suitable to young and new adult readers in particular. show less

The Moon Sisters is a book about grief and family and sisterhood. It is a rather heartbreaking story of two sisters raised by the same mother in the same home, but in such different manner as to affect their whole lives. Olivia, home-schooled and allowed the freedom to "ramble" and be herself and Jazz, all angles and sharp edges, like her name, put on a different, more responsible track from childhood. Their mother's own childhood and broken relationship with her father also plays a big part show more in the lives of the sisters after the mothers death when they are young women. Such a well told and engrossing story, Therese Walsh lures you in by alternating chapters between the two sisters and you're never sure if the push and pull between these young women will end up breaking them apart or cementing them in some new way. It is a rather magical journey that kept me reading well into the night show less