Jazz and Olivia Moon couldn’t be more different. Jazz is logical and decisive, frustrated with her dreamy mother and sister, excited to have a real job at last. Olivia suffers from synthesia, which means she sees sounds and tastes words. She’s stubborn but at the same time impractical, which drives Jazz crazy.
Their mother’s recent death may have been suicide, a fact Jazz accepts and Olivia refuses. Olivia has always said their mother smelled like the sun, and she responds to her loss by staring at the sun until she loses her central vision, leaving her partially blind. Their mother left an unfinished novel and several letters to her father, written over the years, hidden under a loose floorboard and discovered long ago by both girls although only Olivia has read them all. Now Olivia has hatched a plan to lay her mother to rest by visiting the setting of the unfinished novel where she expects to spot a will-o-wisp, or ghost light, something important to the plot. She has attached a great deal of hope to this plan. She sets off on her quest with her mother’s ashes in her suitcase, on foot. When Jazz catches up with her at a restaurant, Olivia hops a freight train. Jazz has no choice but to follow. And we have a modern spin on the classic quest tale, with strange guides and unforeseen turns and an ending that resonates, as with all the best tales.
The Moon Sisters is a tender and thoughtful novel. It deals gently with each sister’s foibles and uncertainties, with their frustrations with each other and with life in general, with their loves and losses. It soon becomes apparent that neither girl has really come to terms with their mother’s death, and that each has something she is hiding from the other. Olivia is determined to go on, and she’s found a guide–a young trainhopper with his face covered in swirls of tattoos, who warns her she shouldn’t trust him. Jazz has also found a guide of sorts–an elderly man who tells her that the young man shouldn’t be trusted, that he’s a thief and a wanted man. Something about the story doesn’t quite add up though. And Jazz is doing her best to understand her sister, even though her well-meant plans end up in screaming fits, as so often happens in real life.
The characters in The Moon Sisters ring true to life, even though you’ve never met these particular girls before. As they struggle through their grief, as they persist in their own stubborn ways to grope towards understanding and a measure of healing, they come to understand the importance of family in ways that are far from sentimental or hackneyed. This is a lyrical tale and I loved the ending. I highly recommend it, and you can enter to win your very own copy! Just follow the instructions below.
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Sally says
Sounds like an interesting and enjoyable book.
Jeanna says
Right away the fact that the sisters are completely different intrigues me!
Ellie W says
The relationship between the sisters intrigues me.
anne says
This novel is captivating since it involves a sisters relationship. I have a sister.
Benita says
I’m interested in psychological family ties.
Vickie Couturier says
I have a sister so this would interest me a lot
Christine L. says
I have a half-sister (that term alone might tell you that our history is, shall we say, fraught). We share a father but little else. I wish our relationship was better! This story is interesting to me because I don’t have a “real” sister.
Sarah says
Sounds good–I’ve added it to my “To Read” list!
Lauren says
I like that this book is about sisters! I have twins girls and I have a sister, so sisters are very important to me.
Katie says
I love the idea of the two completely different personalities of the sisters, and the family dynamics that result.
Linda Kish says
I lost my sister when she was only 32 and that was long ago. But we had our share of screaming fits when we were younger. At least we grew out of it and became best friends before she died. I like that this is a story about two sisters and their relationship.
samantha Wagner says
I like how the sisters are complete opposites. My sister and I are too.
Therese Walsh says
Thank you for your time reading and reviewing The Moon Sisters, Elizabeth! I’m glad the pieces fit together for you in the end. (I’m glad they fit together for me as well! My working title for this book was “This Book is Trying to Kill Me!” Thankfully, it didn’t succeed.)
Good luck to everyone entering to win a copy of the book.
Anita Yancey says
It sounds like an interesting read. I am interested in finding out about the relationship between the sisters.
Birdiebee says
The differences in the sisters intrigues me.
karenk says
I like the story line…thanks for the chance to read this novel 😉
Pamela j says
I would like to read about the relationship between these sisters. Sounds interesting.