Unstoppable Moses

by Tyler James Smith

[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.