Book Review
Title: Moonrise
Author: Sarah Crossan
Genre: YA/Family/Verse
Rating: *****
Review: I haven’t read much from Sarah Crossan but I have read One which made me cry, so when I got the opportunity to get my hands on Moonrise I was so excited to read it. Like One, Moonrise is written in verse and bounced back and forth between the past and present as it follows the relationship between two brother, Joe, and Ed while Ed is on Death Row. The opening introduces us to Joe who is seven years old when he finds out his brother, Ed is in prison and is being charged with murder despite his protests to his brother that he didn’t do I Ten years on, Joe is the only person still standing by Ed, even the rest of his family have turned on him and he has moved closer to the prison to spend the last weeks of his brother’s life with him as his execution date has been set. A year after the first phone call the family learn Ed was convicted and at that point their aunt moved in because their mother couldn’t cope and eventually left and never came back. Despite moving to Texas, Joe hasn’t seen Ed yet as he is too scared to go to the prison alone but their aunt won’t help them and his sister, Angela can’t get the money for another month so Joe is forced to look for work or they won’t be able to say their rent.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, we bounce back and forth as Joe is working in Texas, fixing up an old car on the promise of getting a job with a local diner. He is also struggling with how he is going to support himself while he is there but this is overshadows by thoughts of his brother. Through Joe, we learn their mother was a drunk, drug addict or both and neglected her children but Ed was always around for his younger siblings, stealing food and attending parent-teacher conferences. However, one day his mother kicks him out when he confronts her which is what led to Ed disappearing and eventually getting arrested. As his family couldn’t afford a lawyer for Ed, he had do everything himself but after getting his date, Angela gets him a pro bono lawyer, who informs Joe that his visitation has gone through and he can visit Ed that afternoon. While Joe doesn’t really want to go he doesn’t really have a choice as he is one of the few people who believe that Ed is innocent and shouldn’t be in prison let alone on Death Row. When he gets to the prison he is obviously intimidated by the environment but he powers through it for his brother.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Joe gets to see his brother r the first time in a decade and he realises with a short, sharp shock that he doesn’t know this person, this person isn’t the brother he remembers but he tries to get to know him anyway but we can see there is something going on with Joe that we haven’t learnt about yet as he buys a scratch card instead of sending the money for Ed. He is also getting close to a girl called Nell who works at the diner who seems to encourage the bad side of him but she also gives him money for pizza when he doesn’t have any. We can also see joe starting the travel down the same road that led Ed to where he is as he steals a drunk girl’s wallet for the money as he is flat broke. Between the visits, Joe reflects on his children especially after Joe’s arrest and how his aunt tried to make him disappear from the family but Joe wasn’t willing to let his brother go that easily.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Joe has to ask his brother once and for all whether or not he did the crime he has been charged with and Ed is furious with him and refuses to see him for days, which Joe ends up spending with Nell. However, the prison priest delivers a letter from Ed where he explains everything that happened that night and it turns out that he was pulled over by the police officer but fled when he thought he was going to get him sent home, he ditched the car and was making his way to someplace else when he was picked up. It turns out that the officer’s camera was broken and he was shot after making a few more stops after Ed’s but Ed’s was the last one he called in so the police added two and two and got five. After hours of being interrogated, having sleep and water withheld, Ed signed the confession and even though it held no actual details of the crime he was found guilty and convicted as an adult meaning he got a death sentence. Ed explains when he made the confession he thought he would be able to explain what actually happened later but no one wanted to listen and now he is going to die in less than a month unless a miracle happens which is unlikely which both Ed and Joe know.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Joe is getting to know his brother the best he can in the time that they have left but it isn’t helping Joe other than reminding him that his brother is going to die unless something happens. However, spending time with Nell is making him feel less alone and that his life isn’t as bad as it is and they even enter a relationship of sorts. Joe also suspects that she was the one behind getting the car running which secured him a job with the diner meaning he now has a source of income to support himself. People do warn him not to stay longer than he needs to, one women ends tells him she can to the town for her son who was a lifer and even after he was stabbed to death in prison she never left and now feels she can never leave and warns Joe not to fall into the small abyss she has when his brother is gone.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, as Ed’s execution date gets close his appeal are denied and his only hope now is the Governor but Joe doesn’t have much faith. However, his sister and aunt have arrived and with the exception of his mother, the family are together and will be until the end. Things are complicated though as Joe learns Nell’s father is the warden of the prison which upsets things between them but they manage to work through it. We also get some really heart-warming scenes of this family spending Ed’s final days together we really made me want to cry. I am sad though that Joe can’t be there at the end as only people over 18 can be there for the execution and he is the only person that has been there for Ed in the final month. Finally we have reached close to the end as it is now the day before the execution and I have a feeling that the Moon family aren’t going to get the miracle they have been praying for.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, I was right about the family not getting their happy ending as the Governor denies Ed’s final appeal and he is going to die. Seeing the family last meeting and having to say goodbye was heartbreaking and seeing Joe completely fall apart after hearing that his brother is gone was devastating but Ed does leave them something good. He leaves them the memories they have from when they were happy and the knowledge that all of them are now free. As the family head back to New York there is a final goodbye between Joe and Nell which seems so trivial in comparison to what happened with Ed and it is made worse realising that this does happen in real life. Sarah Crossan has mastered the art of writing some of the most depression books I have ever read and I hope she never stopped.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from NetGalley.
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