This book is like a slug to the guts that stays with you for days. I finished it in one sitting and it's still there, gnawing away at the back of my brain. Jo is on his way to see his brother Ed, whom he hasn't seen for ten years. Jo's got a good reason to finally see his brother. Ed is on death row for murdering a policeman. Ed swears he didn't do it, Jo just wants to finally see Ed and try to get some answers. Jo and Ed's life was a rough one, their dad died when Jo was three, their mom is a drunk that's incapable of raising them. Even worse, she seems uninterested in raising them when she isn't drunk. Together with their sister Angela, they are raised by their Aunt Karen, a Bible thumper with strict rules but not enough time or energy to punch in to raise three poor kids from the wrong side of town. While Ed is visiting Jo, he becomes a regular at a greasy spoon where he meets Nell. Jo finds some solace in Nell, but as the clock ticks on Ed's sentence, Jo isn't sure he can face reality on his own. Told in short, poetic burst like pumping heartbeats, Moonrise rages against a the fetid swamp that is the American justice system, specifically the death penalty. It's a story about forgiveness, hope, letting go and moving on. It will scoop out your guts, it will make you cry, it will compel you to put it into the hands of anyone who loves books because if they don't love it they have a burnt wasps nest for a heart.
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