Liz Moore | LONG BRIGHT RIVER

Plot (via Goodreads):

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.

Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit--and her sister--before it's too late.

Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.

Review:

Literary suspense is at its finest with Long Bright River by Liz Moore. While this one isn't a palpitating thriller with twists and turns galore, it is an uncomfortably harrowing novel about two young women who took two very different routes in life and the past that binds them together. Combining this plot with a dangerously immersive prose and a subtly mysterious disappearance and in my eyes, you have a five-star read that is captivating, haunting, and sensationally written.

Liz Moore is brilliant. I loved the way she told this story, I loved the equal parts of past and present, I loved how brutally real this story was, and I loved the characters. This novel is - at times brutally shocking - and deals with addiction in a complex and honest way which at times is very emotionally heavy and hard to process. Moore writes with equal parts elegance and grittiness. I cannot say enough great things about this one. It is perfect, it is poignant, suspenseful, and timely. I believe this to be an instant-classic and at over 400 pages, once you're lost in the story you aren't coming out until the final page.

I was drawn to this one because I believed it to be another mystery/thriller. I was captivated by Liz Moore's jaw-dropping writing. I was left ripped apart by this storyline with a heavy heart. I loved this novel. I loved this story. I loved these characters. I loved this experience.

Special thanks to Riverhead Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 5/5