The Moon Sisters

by Therese Walsh

[SilverThistle]

I loved this one so much! I was offered this one by the publisher and I'm so thrilled I accepted because it's a wonderful story. I barely laid it down from start to finish. I'm a REALLY slow reader usually but I just rattled through this one.

It's hard for me to write a review for something I loved as opposed to one I hated as it's all about the 'feels' for me and I can't put it into words sometimes. (Just an FYI - with this one I have a lot of feels and chances are that this review is going to be all over the place because of it.)

I don't read very much in this genre (is it Women's fiction? Family drama? Coming of Age?...I'm not sure) but the thing that drew me to accepting this one was the mention of Synesthesia. It's a condition I've heard of before but don't really know much about. It's fascinating. No two people who are affected by the condition have the same experiences and it varies from person to person but Wiki describes it as -

"A neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report such experiences are known as synesthetes.

In layman's terms, it's the ability to hear colours, or smell sounds, or even taste words. It's fascinating to me.

Anyway, the story. It's just so interesting! Told in alternating chapters from Jazz and Olivia's points of view with some chapters interspersed with letters written by the girls' mother to her father when she was alive. Is it fate or luck that leads someone to make a certain decision over another? Is life all mapped out for us or is it just about being in the right place at the right time? Maybe it's a bit of both?

I really cared about the characters, I loved them, both the main two girls and their family and the interesting people they meet on their journey (and their stories which run alongside Jazz and Olivia's are equally wonderful). Brilliantly written, evenly paced and satisfying to the end.

I'm not doing this justice at all, I'm all over the place with it. I can't find the words. I just loved it all and everyone needs to read it!