This month, I have chosen a wonderful novel, one that I absolutely fell in love with. The characters are so realistic and the story had me hooked.

Crooked Moon by Lisette Brodey



Every once in a while you read a book and know it will be lifelong favourite. 'Crooked Moon' is one of those books for me. I also love the cover art.

Here's the review I wrote after I read it:

I really enjoyed this book.
Frankie and Callie were childhood best friends, more like sisters than friends, living next door to each other in Rainytown, a less than desirable neighbourhood. Their friendship was something that helped them through life's hard lessons. When Callie moved out of the neighbourhood she left her friend behind and always regretted doing so. Her life had changed and her social circle was not one where her friend would have felt comfortable. Twenty three years later, Callie is back in Rainytown after her Aunt's death, and the two girls meet again. Whilst Callie dearly wants her best friend back in her life, Frankie is bitter and resentful about the way Callie had written her out of her life years before. We follow their turbulent struggle to get their friendship back on track, and encounter many colourful and believable characters along the way. It's a very entertaining read and in parts is unputdownable. The ending is very moving.
All of the characters seem so real, it almost feels as though you are watching them living their lives as you read the book. By the end of the book I felt as if I really knew them.
The book is very well written. There is one small issue that was slightly distracting for me: when the author is describing characters' movements she does like to say 'left hand' or 'right hand', 'left foot' or 'right foot' when it really would suffice to say 'a hand' or 'his foot'. There are quite a few occurrences of this, e.g. 'he placed his right hand on her left shoulder' - too much information, sounds a bit clumsy and only slows down the action, in my opinion. But this is a very minor issue.
To sum up, this story is about everyday people and everyday lives and deals with subjects to which we can all relate; friendship, trust, loyalty, family secrets, bereavement, forgiveness.
Lisette Brodey has painted the characters in her novel like an artist with a brush, breathing life into them so that they come off the page. There is depth and insightfulness in her writing. There are many thought provoking passages throughout this fabulous work of fiction. I would highly recommend the book to lovers of great fiction.


I hope you'll give it a try!