Long Bright River

I can see Im an outlier here, but I really didnt enjoy this book. Admittedly, the subject matter is grim (broken families, working class neighborhoods, kids dropping out of school, poverty, drugs, sex workers, murder), but lord, this is BLEAK.

Perhaps it would have been easier to take if Mickey had been a more likeable protagonist, but shes not. Shes 33 and still hasnt stopped resenting things that happened when she was a kid. Shes humorless. She’s self-righteous. She has thirteen years on the police force, but claims she cant afford a decent apartment or reliable childcare and spends a crazy % of the book arranging that care, mostly asking for it free or for sub-minimum wage from other women. She seems to spend almost nothing on clothes (but resents women who do); she barely drinks, doesnt smoke where is her money going? Why hasn’t she, after almost five years, realized that she needs reliable childcare? And why hasn’t she realized that she needs to transfer to a job that has childcare-friendly schedules? They do exist; look at how she met the baby-daddy. He transferred to the Police Athletic League when he had a son, precisely to avoid the tyranny of schedules that rotate between 8a-4p, 4p-midnight, or midnight-8a. It must be impossible to arrange childcare around such a schedule, but Mickey acts as though she has no choice when she indeed has one.

Google tells me that cops with her seniority in PA make a lot more than school teachers, (as in, they make $60-$80k/yr: nowhere near poverty. The author describes it as poverty; it is not) yet she aspires to be a teacher because (as far as I can tell) she thinks its a classier occupation. I mean, yes, her childhood was terrible, but people have overcome worse without a massive chip on the shoulder and lingering class resentment.

The other characters are very thinly-drawn. Is it my imagination or are all the men a bit slow-witted?

I’ve edited this review since I first wrote it. I read the book again. Nothing changes my initial impression, but the last 5% of the book redeems it a bit. I don’t want to read 95% for the last 5%.

If I were Amy Pascal, Id hire rewrite on the Mickey character.

too incredible to pass this one up. Long Bright River is a novel only in that that characters and setting are fictional. The content of this book is VERY real. Two sisters from a broken, dysfunctional home, grow up depending on each other and forging a bond that will stand immense testing.

This book is literary, its family drama, mystery, thriller, suspense and its almost 500 pages that will rush by gut wrenching flips. The characters are real, the setting is familiar and the story is far too common. Editing on this book is extraordinary and the short bursts of story add to its emotion and drive rather than aggravate. Switching from past to present is marked so clearly it will seem abrupt, at first, and then it will be perfect.

Liz Moore has begun 2020 with an explosive yet hopeful offering thats sure to have readers talking for a long time

When I first got this book I thought it was going to be about a murder and a bit of family drama here and there… Well, to be honest the book starts pretty nicely and it goes with the murder and how this police officer deals with things that are going on at home and at work, but suddenly you are reading over 200 pages of extensive, unnecessary, and boring character/background development. Once you get to 75% or so of the book it finally goes back into the “juicy” portion of the story and poof, the book ends.
The writing style of this book is extremely frustrating! If you take all of the “I say”, “She says”, “He says” from the book you probably already have 30% of the pages, no kidding, check my picture! lol Please use quotations!!!
The main character is so bland and boring, and honestly it is hard to see a career long police officer being unable to even talk to someone on the phone and so oblivious of what may happen around her. I did enjoy the family portion of the story and the reality of low income areas with the drug epidemic.

Difficult to follow because of the purposeful lack of proper punctuation. Too many explicit descriptions of streets and locations in Philadelphia that were unnecessary and unrelated to story. This was one of the worst books I’ve read in recent memory and am being generous with 2 stars. Don’t waste your time or money. Obviously, I don’t recommend this book.

I am already predicting Long Bright River to be in my top 5 of favorite books for 2020!

Long Bright River is brutally honest about the grittiness around dysfunctional families, the opioid epidemic, and sex work. Liz Moore’s writing is intense and so real. I had a two day book hangover after finishing this book and I cannot wait for the movie being produced by Amy Pascal and Neal H. Moritz!

Told in alternating timelines – Sisters, Mickey and Kacey, grew up inseparable after losing both parents to the opioid epidemic in the heart of Philadelphia. Mickey and Kacey were taken in by their Grandmother who was very open about the fact that she resented the fact that she was raising her granddaughters. When the girl were in their early teens, they started attending an after school program that was staffed by local police officers. Mickey found herself being mentored by a young male officer, while Kacey started hanging around other troubled teens.

Fast forward to their early 30s – Mickey is a single mom and beat cop, while Kacey is a sex worker and addicted to drugs. Mickey’s beat covers Kacey’s working area, so she keeps an eye on her even though they haven’t spoken in 5 years. When sex workers start ending up dead, Kacey goes missing, and Mickey’s captain doesn’t seem too worried about the dead sex workers, Mickey becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her sister.

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