Alice Sebold's follow-up to The Lovely Bones is a somewhat disappointing turn for the acclaimed author. "When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily," the novel starts.

In The Almost Moon, Helen Knightly is a middle-aged woman who has cared for her senile mother most of her life. Helen has dreamt about killing her mother for a long time, and she succombs to the fantasy and smothers her.

For the rest of the novel we see flashbacks of Helen's childhood and her parents' marriage, and are privy to her feelings after murdering her mother.

Like usual, Sebold provides a bleak portrait of family life; however, her characters are weak and their actions incomprehensible. Unlike The Lovely Bones, the main character is mistifying and her actions are rather incomprehensible. At times it appears Sebold is justifying Helen's feelings and actions, but it's a difficult pill to swallow.

Helen's relationship with her children, ex-husband and best friend are confusing and do not contribute to the reader's understanding of her actions. Throughout the novel Helen describes her parents' mental illnesses, but no explanation is ever given of their cause.

Although The Almost Moon is a thought-provoking read, it does little to explain or contribute to material on matricide and family problems. Helen is a rather unsympathetic character, and the end of the novel is disappointing and unresolved.

Overall, it fails to meet the admittedly high expectations most have for the writer of the acclaimed novel, The Lovely Bones.

- Ashley