05 October 2020

Long Bright River - Book Review

 

Long Bright River by Liz Moore
Publication date: January 7, 2020
Pages: 492 pages
Genre: Literary fiction, mystery/thriller, family drama
Rating: 4.5/5 stars ☆☆☆☆
Strengths: Story, characters, emotion
Weaknesses: Punctuation style


The story is told by Michaela Fitzpatrick, usually known as Mickey. She and her sister Kacey were raised by their emotionally abusive grandmother after their mother died as a result of her opioid addiction. As a teenager, Mickey watched Kacey fall victim to drug addiction and life on the streets of their Philadelphia neighborhood as well. 

Now adults, Mickey has become a police officer and patrols the streets where Kacey can usually be found. When a few street girls end up  murdered, Mickey realizes she hasn't seen Kacey in at least a month, and Kacey's friends on the streets confirm that Kacey has disappeared from all her regular hang-outs. 

The book follows Mickey, trying to protect the street girls on her patrol, find her sister, and figure out who is murdering the girls. Unfortunately, the more info Mickey finds out, the harder it is to trust anyone to help her solve the mystery and save more girls from being killed. 

This book is fiction, but the story it tells is true for too many. Addiction victimizes so many people who may have grown up seeing it destroy those around them, and they still often can't find a way out. Their story was told beautifully by Mickey's narration (although I wish she had some traditional punctuation for her dialogue!). 

I'd give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars and recommend it for readers who enjoy police procedurals, family dramas, and stories about the battles against opioid addiction. The characters were multi-faceted and showed their good sides and their bad sides in equal turns. 


1 comment:

Rebecca Jo said...

i think I may have been one of the few that didnt really care for this book. The style of writing on it drove me a little nuts