Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Read!!!
Review: This book tells about a city in Florida, Verity, where more divorced women from New York reside. First you are
introduced to many of the town's citizens, from the woman who works at the Hole In One, to the meanest boy in Verity who kidnapped a baby girl. Soon we find out how they are all connected. And when a murder occurs the search begins to find the killer.
The story centers around a specific family; a mother and her son. It sees them through to the end. I was surprised by
how much I liked this book, But then I like all of Alice Hoffman's work. I ended up giving Turtle Moon 4.5 stars:)
Rating: 
Summary: Rich, haunting murder mystery totally satisfies the listener
Review: "Turtle Moon" was one of the best surprises I have had the pleasure to read. The story of a young mother and her troubled pre-teen son looked interesting on the cover jacket, but I was unprepared for the tremendous descriptive writing style of Ms. Hoffman. The reader/listener truly gets lost in the lives of the characters due to Alice Hoffman's lyrical and insightful characterizations. You feel the sticky heat of Verity, Florida, the bravado and fears of young Keith, Lucy's need for independence, Julian's quiet southern determination and even the loyalty and intellegence of his dogs, especially the bond between Keith and Arrow.Who are these characters, and what is the mystery of the gumbo limbo tree? The answers unfold in an old fashioned mystery coated in southern molasses. Lucy is escaping a bad marriage and has come to Verity, Florida to start a new life. So is the young mother in her apartment complex that turns up brutally murdered on a hot May night. Her infant daughter is discovered by Lucy's son Keith, a surly adolescent who cannot wait to return to his father once school is out. The two hide out in the woods surrounding Verity, surviving on garbage and food left out by the young donut waitress, who is planning her own escape from Verity. Julian Cash is a Verity police officer with haunting past of his own. He both investigates the murder and searches for the missing children. This brings him into a very close relationship with Lucy. Lucy's search for answers brings her back to New Jersey, where she fled her marriage. It is there that she discovers the truth behind her murdered neighbor and cements her new realtionship with Julian. Julian brings Keith and the infant to the woman who raised him, which gives the reader even more insight into his character. "Turtle Moon" is a gripping story leaving the reader hungry for more Alice Hoffman. Sandra Burr gives a masterful performance on the Brilliance Corporation reading. For a follow up, I would suggest Hoffman's "Here On Earth", written in the same rich descriptive style.
Rating:
Summary: Rich, haunting murder mystery totally satisfies the listener
Review: "Turtle Moon" was one of the best surprises I have had the pleasure to read. The story of a young mother and her troubled pre-teen son looked interesting on the cover jacket, but I was unprepared for the tremendous descriptive writing style of Ms. Hoffman. The reader/listener truly gets lost in the lives of the characters due to Alice Hoffman's lyrical and insightful characterizations. You feel the sticky heat of Verity, Florida, the bravado and fears of young Keith, Lucy's need for independence, Julian's quiet southern determination and even the loyalty and intellegence of his dogs, especially the bond between Keith and Arrow. Who are these characters, and what is the mystery of the gumbo limbo tree? The answers unfold in an old fashioned mystery coated in southern molasses. Lucy is escaping a bad marriage and has come to Verity, Florida to start a new life. So is the young mother in her apartment complex that turns up brutally murdered on a hot May night. Her infant daughter is discovered by Lucy's son Keith, a surly adolescent who cannot wait to return to his father once school is out. The two hide out in the woods surrounding Verity, surviving on garbage and food left out by the young donut waitress, who is planning her own escape from Verity. Julian Cash is a Verity police officer with haunting past of his own. He both investigates the murder and searches for the missing children. This brings him into a very close relationship with Lucy. Lucy's search for answers brings her back to New Jersey, where she fled her marriage. It is there that she discovers the truth behind her murdered neighbor and cements her new realtionship with Julian. Julian brings Keith and the infant to the woman who raised him, which gives the reader even more insight into his character. "Turtle Moon" is a gripping story leaving the reader hungry for more Alice Hoffman. Sandra Burr gives a masterful performance on the Brilliance Corporation reading. For a follow up, I would suggest Hoffman's "Here On Earth", written in the same rich descriptive style.
Rating:
Summary: a good read.
Review: A book full of interesting people, a story that grabs you and doesn't let go until the end, and so well written i could feel the sticky southern heat even in the middle of winter.
Rating:
Summary: A Moon Above the Rest
Review: Abandon your stark reality. Leave behind your job, your hobbies, and your responsibilities for about 250 pages and come to Verity, FLorida, where, "Every May, when the sea turtles begin their migration across West Main Street, mistaking the glow of street lights for the moon, people go a little bit crazy," Enjoy May. In Alice Hoffman's "Turtle Moon" we are presented with a town so full of hopeless outsiders and restless natives that each character has a story to tell and each finds his/her place among this compelling surrealistic story. With solid characters which possess histories beautifully illustrated and detailed, human relatioships are explored enough to provide a certain insight into such mortal meddlings but not an excess of such so as to drown the work in sentimentality. When a woman is murdered and her infant daughter missing, suspicions arise around a 12 year old hoodlum who disappears at the same time. The rest of the narrative follows the mother of this pre-teen and a police officer set to track him down. Under the May moomlight events proceed and things emerge from each person in the town yet the book keeps from falling into a meldramtic saga. In direct contrast, Britain's periodical, the "Independent on Sunday" claimed Hoffman's work to be a ". . . psychological thriller. . . " but this is wrong, too. Instead, "Turtle Moon" lies between the two concrete terms, effectively combining an almost dreamlike trance with suspensful conflicts. The hazy atmosphere in which most of the novel takes place can be compared to Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" in way of the surrealist nature that surrounds some of the characters. While no one within the pages stands to be immortal, an angel falls in love and an unfavorable man cries stones in his childhood. An important point to mention here is that none of this could take place if it weren't for the setting of Verity and the impressive protrayal which almost causes you to feel the heat and humidity radiating from the Florida sky. Perhaps one fault to be found in this work lies in the suspicion that the plotline becomes a little too coincendental toward the end which can lead us to believe that Hoffman is perhaps acting in excess as she tries for a climactic finale. However, the fact remains that if it weren't for coincedences, there wouldn't be much of a book in any case, so a little forgiveness can be issued here. As an escape book written for women by a woman, things work well in "Turtle Moon". Characters develop, plot intrigues, and setting haunts us if for nothing more than approximately 250 pages. But then again, isn't all we need?
Rating:
Summary: A book for the heart and soul first, the intellect second.
Review: Alice Hoffman almost invariably describes her characters just below the skin, first. You know them right away, and who they are, even before you know what they look like. The
purely physical world has it's place in the corner, rarely
in the spotlight. Alice has an amazing way of seeing into the genesis of a
character, and sharing her unique vision with the reader.
This book is, to me, her best. And I have read them all. The plot, which is the least of it, slides and skips along effortlessly, with a rewarding payoff at the end. But even
without that, this book is most definitely about the journey,
not the climax. And speaking of that, I made love to officer Julian Cash, the main male character, between the pages of this book, along with, well, whatever her name was.(who me? jealous?)
And I literally dreamt about him the night I finished reading.
I can honestly say that I have never before fallen in love
with a character in a novel. I can never say that again.
Rating:
Summary: A book for the heart and soul first, the intellect second.
Review: Alice Hoffman almost invariably describes her characters just below the skin, first. You know them right away, and who they are, even before you know what they look like. The purely physical world has it's place in the corner, rarely in the spotlight. Alice has an amazing way of seeing into the genesis of a character, and sharing her unique vision with the reader. This book is, to me, her best. And I have read them all. The plot, which is the least of it, slides and skips along effortlessly, with a rewarding payoff at the end. But even without that, this book is most definitely about the journey, not the climax. And speaking of that, I made love to officer Julian Cash, the main male character, between the pages of this book, along with, well, whatever her name was.(who me? jealous?) And I literally dreamt about him the night I finished reading. I can honestly say that I have never before fallen in love with a character in a novel. I can never say that again.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting, romantic adventure. . . Alice Hoffman at her best
Review: Alice Hoffman has a magical way with language that makes you savor this book as you read it; the only disappointment is to come to the end. The juxtaposition of realism and fantasy in this exciting and romantic story is breathtaking. One of my top ten favorite books of all times
Rating:
Summary: Another Hoffman Hit!
Review: Alice Hoffman has scored again with Turtle Moon, a grown up fairy tale with a twist. I love how Hoffman's books deal with characters who may be unlovely on the outside, but who turn out out to be beautiful on the inside (and vice versa!). Overall, her characters are heartbreakingly human, and my heart breaks everytime I read Hoffman's books. So cathartic; and so irresitable!
Rating:
Summary: a very engaging novel...
Review: Alice Hoffman is certainly one of the most insightful writers of our time. Her characters take on life with the same kind of bewilderment that many of us do. They are not all good or all bad, just a little mixture of both that make them all the more lifelike.
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