Sebold's first novel, The Lovely Bones , kills off its heroine, 14-year-old Susie Salmon, before you've even turned the first page.
Yet it was a smash hit, full of haunting compassion and longing, as Susie, watching from heaven, sees her family and friends discover healing after grief.
I loved it.
But Sebold also filled the story with real warmth.
That sympathetic tone is starkly absent in Sebold's second fictional outing, The Almost Moon, set in small-town Pennsylvania.
This time the murder comes even quicker–in the opening line–and the subject matter, matricide, is again challenging.
The novel whizzes through the killing's 24-hour aftermath, skipping back and forth through Helen's memories of her troublesome childhood, her father's suicide, her own failed marriage, and her struggle to raise two daughters.
This pace, and Helen's chilling narrative tone, mean little humanity seeps through.
The Almost Moon 's bleakness and hopelessness make it unlikely to be held in the same affection as its predecessor.
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