11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heartbreaking Tale (A-Grade), June 1, 2008
This review is from: Promise the Moon (Mass Market Paperback)
Promise the Moon by Elizabeth Joy Arnold is such an emotional read that will stay long with you after you finish reading. A family that has been destroyed by depression and suicide must find the way to more on and find hope and happiness even though everything they once knew has been changed.
Josh is now dead and left behind a wife, Natalie and two young children, a daughter Anna, age ten, and a son, Toby age five. Josh, a Marine, came back from his second tour in Iraq a changed man and suffered from post traumatic stress. Josh did not die a hero fighting a war, but instead he couldn't live with himself and decided to shoot himself in the head in the garage. And now Natalie is left all alone to pick up the pieces.
Natalie and her children must move from the military base back home with her parents. Her mother is suffering from Alzheimer's and her father welcomes them and does his best under the current situation.
Josh use to put special notes in a secret hiding place in the bathroom that only he, Toby and Anna knew about. Josh explained that the notes and small gifts he would leave there while he was away showed his love for them. Even though Toby knows his dad is in heaven, he believes Josh still writes to him. Actually, Anna is the one writing the letters to her younger brother.
Natalie tries her best to go on with her life and help her children. Natalie is barely holding it together and has more questions than answers and unless she can confront the truth about Josh's illness and the concerns of her children, she may never forgive Josh for what he has done and find the strength in herself to go on without him.
Promise the Moon is one of the most powerful books I have read in a very long time. Elizabeth Joy Arnold's tale of suicide, depression and heartache brought me to tears. This is one book you will not want to miss out on and afterward, you may find yourself a changed person. Natalie is a character that will stay with you long after you finish reading. Her strength and willpower to carry on under the most horrible of circumstances is amazing. She feels that she has failed herself, Josh, and her two children, who may never get over their own grief.
Anna and Toby have very realistic emotions and actions as they try to deal with their father's death in their own ways. Anna is troubled and her suffering will cut you like a knife.
When a book brings out the tears like Promise the Moon did, there are really no other words to explain how incredible a read this is. Elizabeth Joy Arnold deserves great praise and applause.
Kate Garrabrant
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Timely subject matter, July 16, 2008
This review is from: Promise the Moon (Mass Market Paperback)
While I thought Pieces of my Sisters Life was a better book, I still think this is well written and thought provoking. Many of our soldiers are suffering with the after effects of war. No matter what your political views are these soldiers have given a lot and deserve our help and support. As with her last book, I found the characters not always very likeable, but very real.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timely subject matter, July 14, 2008
This review is from: Promise the Moon (Mass Market Paperback)
I just finished Promise the Moon by Elizabeth Joy Arnold. I found the book to be compelling with a very timely story line. Natalie, the main character of the book, is a newly widowed young women with two small children. Her husband, an Iraq war veteran, killed himself leaving Natalie to cope with the huge emotional problems she and her children are feeling.
I particularly like how the author does not shy away from the ugly, serious subject matters. In her previous book Pieces of my Sister's Life, there were many tough to read events including some violence. I found it hard to read at times but also a very well written book. Promise the Moon is very much the same. There are few subjects more difficult to read about than the suicide of a young father and the utter despair and guilt it leaves the survivors. Adding that to the fact that he is a veteran of a heavily controversial war, a war that many believe is wrong in the first place makes it even more compelling. I find Elizabeth Joy Arnold's writing a gift to read, and her subject matter intensely interesting.
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