Orlion reviewed The almost moon by Alice Sebold
Review of 'The almost moon' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
There was some very well-written prose, and some great emotionally charged passages in this book. As a whole, the journey of Helen is an interesting, hopeful one, and there's a lot to consider and discuss. But, you got to get past the first 93 pages or so. These pages, the first third of the book, contain some of the most atrocious prose that I have read in a while. It's almost like Ms. Sebold took some unfinished project from her high school years and finished it without editing/changing/rewriting what she had all ready done. It seems like two different books.
Unfortunately, these pages are also the first the reader is going to encounter. Who's going to want to get paste this chore of prose to get to the good parts?
As a result, I can only say the novel was ok. The overall concept works, the conflict works, the resolution …
There was some very well-written prose, and some great emotionally charged passages in this book. As a whole, the journey of Helen is an interesting, hopeful one, and there's a lot to consider and discuss. But, you got to get past the first 93 pages or so. These pages, the first third of the book, contain some of the most atrocious prose that I have read in a while. It's almost like Ms. Sebold took some unfinished project from her high school years and finished it without editing/changing/rewriting what she had all ready done. It seems like two different books.
Unfortunately, these pages are also the first the reader is going to encounter. Who's going to want to get paste this chore of prose to get to the good parts?
As a result, I can only say the novel was ok. The overall concept works, the conflict works, the resolution works, even the characters work. But this accomplishment is marred/scarred by the first third of the book, turning what could have been a novel worth revisiting into something I would never want to subject myself to again.