The Moon Sisters

December 16, 2013
Walsh’s luminous second novel (after The Last Will of Moira Leahy) examines the disparate emotional and physical journeys undertaken by two sisters from the town of Tramp, W.Va., after their mother’s death. Because Olivia Moon is cursed (or, arguably, blessed) with synesthesia, a condition that causes her to taste sounds and see smells, her mother, Beth, decides to homeschool her. Beth is a dreamer who writes letters to her estranged father that she never mails and works on a fantasy story that she is afraid to finish. Olivia’s no-nonsense older sister, Jazz, is adamant about not following in their mother’s footsteps. When Beth dies from inhaling gas from a stove—whether she does so accidentally or willfully is not known—Olivia sets out on the daylong trip that her mother had planned on making, to a cranberry bog where Beth hoped to see “ghost lights” and be inspired to finish her book. Jazz secretly follows her sister and they end up joining a small group of “train hoppers” who spend their lives riding the rails. Walsh explores how the sisters’ experience of the outside world transforms their views of each other and themselves, in a book packed with invention and rich characterizations. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Weed Literary.

February 15, 2014
This second novel by Walsh (The Last Will of Moira Leahy, 2010) centers on two sisters--one with synesthesia and one with a pragmatic outlook--as they recover from the suicide of their mother. In Tramp, W.Va., 18-year-old Olivia comes home to find her mother, Beth, in the kitchen with the gas oven on and the pilot light off. Olivia refuses to believe it was suicide--after all, her mother often used the oven for heating--but no one else is deluded. How could they be when Beth Moon suffered from severe depression and anxiety for 20 years? Six months later, the family is still reeling: Their father has taken to heavy drinking, Olivia has gone partially blind from staring at the sun, and sister Jazz has found herself a job in, of all places, a funeral home. Because of a dream, Olivia wants to take her mother's ashes to the Cranberry Glades. Beth, an aspiring writer, got pregnant in college and was subsequently disowned by her father. In between bouts of depression, Beth was writing a fairy tale set in the Glade--an unfinished story about identity and forgiveness. Olivia thinks some destiny will be fulfilled if she brings her mother's ashes there and she sees the legendary will-o'-the-wisp. Jazz thinks this is all foolishness but has been helping Olivia all her life. Olivia's synesthesia (a neurological condition in which people can "see" sound and "taste" visual stimuli, etc.) has made her the dreamer, the one who lifted their mother's mood, the one prone to impulse. When their van breaks down on the way to the Glade, Olivia hops a train, and Jazz furiously follows. There, they are introduced to train culture, and Olivia meets Hobbs, a 20-year-old train hopper with a face covered in tattoos. He agrees to bring Olivia to the Cranberry Glades, but Jazz has other plans. Though Walsh creates a vivid journey for the two sisters, they both speak and act, as does Hobbs, far older than their years, resulting in a less-than-believable coming-of-age tale. An uneven mix of magic and sorrow, from a promising writer.

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Starred review from March 15, 2014

Walsh's second novel (after The Last Will of Moira Leahy) is a story of sisters Jazz and Olivia, who take separate but winding paths toward moving on with their lives after their mother's suicide. Jazz, older and angry, decides to plunge into a new job while Olivia, who can see sounds and taste words, runs away to the remote setting of her mother's unfinished novel. Jazz follows, determined to drag her younger sister home, only to be met with more roadblocks as Olivia attaches herself to a train-hopper who insists he can't be trusted. Tension between the siblings mounts on the way to their destination as each sister is hiding secrets about their mother. VERDICT Walsh has written a beautiful, lush novel fueled by a fairy-tale journey of grief, love, and will-o'-the-wisps. Fans of coming-of-age novels and magical realism will be drawn in and may never want to leave.--Mara Dabrishus, Ursuline Coll. Lib., Pepper Pike, OH

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2014
Jazz and Olivia Moon are about as different as sisters can be. The death of their mother, which appears to have been a suicide, hits them both hard, but their reactions are completely opposite. Practical, 22-year-old Jazz gets a job at the funeral home that handled their mother's funeral, while dreamy 18-year-old Olivia half blinds herself by staring at the sun and decides to visit a bog to catch sight of the wisps that her mother talked and wrote about. Accompanied by reluctant Jazz, Olivia sets off, but when the bus they're driving breaks down, Olivia makes the rash decision to stow away on a train. There she meets a tattooed, reticent young drifter named Hobbs, who agrees to help her find the wisps. When Jazz catches up with them, she's immediately put off by Hobbs and furious with Olivia's refusal to give up her mission or accept that their mother's death was a suicide. Both heartbreaking and hopeful, the Moon sisters' journey is no quixotic quest, and readers will find themselves completely immersed in their transformative search. This magical, moving tale is not to be missed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)