Book Review: Moonglass

Moonglass - Jessi Kirby

Release Date: May 3, 2011

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Age Group: Young Adult

Pages: 232

Buy the Book: Amazon

From Jessi Kirby, a debut novel about confronting the past in order to move ahead.  

I read once that water is a symbol for emotions. And for a while now, I've thought maybe my mother drowned in both.  

Anna's life is upended when her father accepts a job transfer the summer before her junior year. It's bad enough that she has to leave her friends and her life behind, but her dad is moving them to the beach where her parents first met and fell in love- a place awash in memories that Anna would just as soon leave under the surface. 
While life on the beach is pretty great, with ocean views and one adorable lifeguard in particular, there are also family secrets that were buried along the shore years ago. And the ebb and flow of the ocean's tide means that nothing- not the sea glass that she collects on the sand and not the truths behind Anna's mother's death- stays buried forever.

Summary taken from Goodreads.

My Review: 

It didn't take much for this book to have me completely hooked. The cover is absolutely gorgeous and the summary is heart-wrenching. There is even a blurb on the cover from Sarah Dessen. But what really drew me in to this book, I think was this quote: "I read once that water is a symbol for emotions. And for a while now, I've thought maybe my mother drowned in both. "  No matter what I do I just can not get these words out of my mind. They are haunting and mysterious yet so beautiful. 

The book starts off with Anna and her dad moving to a place called Crystal Cove. Where her parents first met and fell in love. Anna is horrified with the aspect of moving away from her friends, grandmother and the beach that took her mother when she was merely 7 years old. But upon reaching Crystal Cove, Anna is set on a wild journey of friendship, love, grief, guilt, and forgiveness. 

Anna and her fathers relationship, though a little stretched because of all the grief and guilt they hold. I thought was very nice and realistic. Especially in the face of such a tragedy. You could see how much they really did love each other. 

Another character was Tyler. Tyler was the cute life guard who Anna falls in love with. I liked how there relationship was slow. Developing from a sort of friendship to love. I thought that this was also very nice and refreshing.

Anna herself in my opinion was a very strong and gutsy character. Through out the story she battles with so much guilt and grief that she feels is her burden to carry and thus will not share with others. Most of her grief is based on her mothers suicide. She can't understand her mothers decision and is almost scared to ask and find out what's really going on. 

Jessi Kirby has so masterfully woven together such a realistic and heart breaking tale. Moonglass had me on the edge of my seat. Although it was only 232 pages long, Jessi Kirby did not leave out anything. It could seriously give most 300 page books a run for there money. There was mystery, romance, tragedy. The concept of sea glass I thought was another wonderful plus for this book. I also really liked the history of the Cove and the empty cottages with haunting memories of the people that once lived in them. Overall, Moonglass is a fantastic book and I recommend it to all readers especially fans of Sarah Dessen!