The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold

L and I agreed on this one, but I stopped reading it and she finished it.

The opening sentence is when the main character says she just killed her mom - elderly mom. The rest of the book is the ensuing 24 hours. We hear that her mom is 88 yrs old, with dementia, and before this, she lived a life filled with verbal abuse aimed at the daughter (main character, sorry, i cannot recall her name, we don't hear it much due to first person narration). Also, the mom was horrible to the character's father (long dead by the time of this event). However, even hearing that a person was horrible to their child and their husband does not excuse the horrific actions taken by the main character. 

L wrote down this line from somewhere in the middle of the book: "It was the right thing to do." The word "it" refers to the murder. At this point, it appears the author is hinting at the "rights" of an ill person to be put out of one's misery -- that euthanasia is "right." And wherever one stands on this topic, this book does NOT read this way. A mercy killing (euthanasia) and murder are different. What this character committed was murder - unrepentent, cold, calculating murder. And later in the book! Oh boy! There's more icky/weird actions taken (no spoilers but ugh). 

The character shows no emotion in the actions she takes. This leaves the reader looking for clues in other parts of her life to see if she is really a cold & calculating person. But there's no evidence that she's a horrible person in any other way. Nor is there evidence that she's had a psychotic break -- e.g., she carries on normal phone conversations with her daughter. The book hints once or twice and some possible reason that the main character would hate her mom so much, but no concrete reason is ever given. The book ends without the author ever saying WHY the murderer acted as she did. If there are deep dark secrets, it would be good to let the reader in on it. 

Again, I quit reading about a quarter way into the book. L gives this book a thumbs down, and I agree. Note that L kept reading, thinking the author would reveal something to redeem this supposed emotionally abused daughter (murderer). Nope.