“An eerie, tense, and finely written novel…Readers will grip their chairs” (SFGate.com) as they try to unravel this tale of psychological suspense from the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of Turn of Mind. Jane loses everything when her teenage daughter is killed in a senseless accident. Devastated, she manages to make one tiny stab at a new life: she moves from San Francisco to … she moves from San Francisco to the seaside town of Half Moon Bay. Jane is inconsolable, and yet, as the months go by, she is able to cobble together some version of a job, of friends, of the possibility of peace.
And then, children begin to disappear. And soon, Jane sees her own pain reflected in all the parents in the town. She wonders if she will be able to live through the aching loss, the fear all around her. And as the disappearances continue, she begins to see that what her neighbors are wondering is if it is Jane herself who has unleashed the horror of loss.
Alice LaPlante’s “well-crafted novel of psychological suspense” is a chilling story about a mother haunted by her past, a “brooding suspense novel…dark, starkly beautiful…LaPlante uses a seductively dangerous landscape to mirror her heroine’s inner life” (Kirkus Reviews).
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When Jane’s teenage daughter is killed, she is shattered. A year later she makes a move to put some kind of like together. She’s done some things in the throes of her grief that she really doesn’t want anyone to know, so this is a clean slate for her.
She finds a job in a nursery growing exotic plants. She gets along well with her boss and then there’s Adam, a man who would like to get closer to Jane. She also meets a couple, Alma and Edward, who become her close, close friends.
But then a little girl goes missing, not found until days later.. wrapped in a blanket, clean, hair combed and with a bit of makeup. It about tears Jane apart, bringing back memories of her own daughter. And then a second girl disappears … and yet a third.
The community is turning into itself with fear and pain and Jane herself becomes a suspect. Is Jane taking these girls and killing them? She’s the first to admit that she’s haunted by her past … but could she possibly be a monster and not know it?
Highly suspenseful, well written, it kept me riveted to each and every page. It seemed as though everyone was a suspect at one point or another… no motive, no clues, no DNA for the girls’ deaths.
Jane’s character bothered me. She was such a pushover and did things she was told/asked to do without thinking about the consequences. She comes across as grieving, but weak, as well. Alma and Edward are just strange. About the only normal one is Adam … and I still had a question about him … he kept popping up in places where Jane was. All in all, it was a good read.
Many thanks to the author / Scribner Books / Edelweiss for the advanced copy of this psychological thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
3.5/5
I am honestly torn between a 3.5 and a 4 for Half Moon Bay by Alice LaPlante. The more I think about it the more I believe it may actually be a full 4/5 stars for me since I did really enjoy it and didn’t want to put it down. This book definitely has one of the lowest averages on Goodreads out of all the books I have read, and it seems almost exclusively because of the writing style which a lot of readers are calling terrible. Where they say it’s bad, I just say it’s unique, and clearly, it is polarizing readers. I actually quite enjoyed LaPlante’s odd writing style, and I do have to say this is better as an audiobook. Gabra Zackman did an incredible job getting the message of the book across along with the character of Jane. I mean she NAILED the narration, and she made the unique writing style shine for me as opposed to coming off bad.
I listened to the audiobook in an afternoon, and it is really quick, and in my opinion fairly suspenseful as well. Jane was a pretty unreliable narrator, and I loved how what she’s been hiding slowly comes out through the story. Half Moon Bay did surprise me a couple of times, but I had been predicting the end for a bit and ended up being right. This didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book though, and I really felt for Jane as a character. I did think the parts with Jane and the new people in town were super weird, and I can see how they tied into the story but not necessarily why LaPlante felt the need to go the way she did with them. That was the thing that weirded me out more than anything, but I think if you can enjoy the writing style you will enjoy the book. It left me with some unanswered questions, but overall, I really enjoyed it, and again, the audiobook is the way to go!
I received a complimentary digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.