The Almost Moon

Synopsis

Helen Knightly, a professional art-class model, mother, and divorcee, suffocates her mother with a towel. The mother, an agoraphobic with severe dementia, is killed in an act that feels both unconscious and like the fulfillment of a buried desire. Over the next twenty-four hours, Helen recalls her childhood, youth, marriage, and motherhood, and tries to conceal the crime, drawing her ex-husband into the conspiracy.

Reception

Critics were split on the novel. Some admired its blunt look at violence and mental illness in America, while others saw it as disorganized or unbelievable. Eileen Battersby of The Irish Times compared it to Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides, calling it an honest, sometimes darkly funny, and often touching story of a woman realizing her life has been erased. Helen Dunmore of The Times said Sebold gradually reveals the narrator's misery and self-deception, crafting a long, occasionally blackly comic critique of a common literary style.

Kim Hedges of the San Francisco Chronicle found it both uncomfortable and gripping. Lee Siegel of The New York Times called it so morally, emotionally, and intellectually muddled that it was sure to become a bestseller. Carole Angier in Literary Review wrote that unlike The Lovely Bones, which opens you to tragedy, this novel makes you want to shut your eyes. Michael Antman of PopMatters argued it is far more genuine and grounded than the fairy tale that made Sebold famous.

On the other hand, Anna Shapiro of The Guardian said the book is unrealistic but saved by realistic details. In the Village Voice, Michael Antman also criticized it, saying the emotions feel false and the characters' reactions to the murder are implausible. Sam Anderson of New York Magazine pointed out its similarity to The Lovely Bones, suggesting Sebold might be repeating herself, but without any clear purpose—leaving the impression that her creative range is so limited that readers have already seen everything she has to offer.