
Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Release: October 12th, 2021
320 Pages
Synopsis: Lyrical and haunting, Hannah Capin’s I Am Margaret Moore is a paranormal thriller that tests the hold of sisterhood and truth.
I am a girl. I am a monster, too.
Each summer the girls of Deck Five come back to Marshall Naval School. They sail on jewel-blue waters; they march on green drill-fields; they earn sunburns and honors. They push until they break apart and heal again, stronger.
Each summer Margaret and Rose and Flor and Nisreen come back to the place where they are girls, safe away from the world: sisters bound by something more than blood.
But this summer everything has changed. Girls are missing and a boy is dead. It’s because of Margaret Moore, the boys say. It’s because of what happened that night in the storm.
Margaret’s friends vanish one by one, swallowed up into the lies she has told about what happened between her and a boy with the world at his feet. Can she unravel the secrets of this summer and last, or will she be pulled under by the place she once called home?
I really enjoyed Hannah Capin’s Foul is Fair, which is a clever modernization of Macbeth, so I was quite excited when I saw I Am Margaret Moore offered on NetGalley. Unfortunately, this didn’t work quite as well for me.
First, this was written in almost a prose style, and while I have liked that form of writing in various books, including in Foul is Fair, here the chapters are short and uneven instead of flowing and lyrical. I also found the symbolism vague and confusing which didn’t help. The multiple timelines were difficult to follow and made me scratch my head even more, and, as much as I tried I found it impossible to connect with any of the characters. None of them had backstories which were developed in any meaningful way, and because of this wound up completely unmemorable. The twist was predictable, but I did like the ending and it wrapped everything up neatly, however that wasn’t enough to save the story for me.
Although I Am Margaret Moore didn’t live up to my expectations, I’ll still give Capin’s next book a try. As always, I’d advise anyone whose intrigued by the premise, to check out other reviewers’ thoughts and not just mine.
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