Unstoppable Moses: A Novel

by Tyler James Smith

Moses and his cousin Charlie were best friends, wisecracking pranksters, unstoppable forces of teenage energy - until the night they became accidental arsonists and set in motion a chain of events that left Moses alone, guilt-stricken, and most likely trapped in his dead-end town.

Then Moses gets a lucky break: the chance to volunteer as a camp counselor for week and prove that the incident at the bowling alley should be expunged from his record. And since a criminal record and enrollment at Duke are mutually exclusive, he’s determined to get through his community service and get on with his life. But tragedy seems to follow him wherever he goes, and this time, it might just stop him in his tracks.

• ISBN10: 1250138558
• ISBN13: 9781250138552
• Publish Date: 1 October 2019 (first published 25 September 2018)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 11 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Flatiron Books
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 3.5 Stars

I have a penchant for grief-and-loss books, and Unstoppable Moses definitely delivered a compelling portrait of one suffering a great loss. I found Moses journey from robot-boy back to feeling-human-boy quite beautiful. His pain, confusion, and complex emotions were well illustrated, and I found the exploration of his complicated relationship with his cousin quite interesting.

I also really enjoyed being at camp. The camp served an important purpose, because it was there, that Moses began to heal and feel again. After almost a year, Moses was connecting with people again, and it was quite an interesting trio, who took Moses under their wing. They gave us some breaks from all the emotional turmoil, and the camp shenanigans were rather amusing.

I struggled a little with parts of the story. There was one scene with an animal, which was really horrible. What made it worse, was that I didn't quite understand why I had to suffer through it. I didn't see its importance in the plot. Then there was the ending. Yes, Moses comes to some sort of understanding about his relationship with his cousin and works through a good amount of his pain, but I still had so many questions, and if there's one thing I struggle with the most, it's those open endings.

Overall: This was an emotional exploration of grief, which was often heartbreaking and undeniably real.