2/5 Stars

* * I received this as an E-ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review, Thank you!**

This was just not the book for me. I wasn't a fan of the writing style and wasn't the biggest fan of the format. I just didn't really vibe with anything in this book. I didn't feel captivated or drawn in. I would say this book would be for a specific person but it's not an everyone kind of book.

3.5/5

Thanks to NetGalley for sending me an advanced copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I Am Margaret Moore is a book about a girl who lives for the summers where she can go to camp and prove who she really is. Margaret loves nothing more than the girls who live with her in bunk 5.... except for the one summer where she chooses a boy over her best friends. That summer, something happened. But no one is talking about it-- especially not Margaret's friends or that boy whom she refuses to name.

I knew this book was going to be weird. I had previously read Hannah Capin's book Foul is Fair and adored it. This book does have some similarities. Both are about female empowerment, revenge, and friendship. Both have supernatural elements and a train-of-consciousness type of style. However, I have to say that I think FiF was executed much better than this title. The style of writing, while appropriate for the story, came across much more repetitive and overdone than it did in FiF. I wish the second half of the story had been a bit shorter (thus, less repetitive)-- I think it could have made a *SUPERB* short story/novella vs a full length novel.

That being said, I did genuinely enjoy this title and will continue to pick up Hannah Capin's books in the future. I will also be purchasing my own copy of this book for my personal library. This just wasn't my favorite HC book of all time.

i honestly really wanted to like this book, but i feel like it was just so confusing with how they constantly jumped summers and that it was so back and forth, it honestly didn't really make any sense to me. like, i honestly wish that they made it more distinct about what summer it was and how they didn't do as much jumping or at least didn't make it so confusing. and i mean, i honestly wish they didn't make it like that, and maybe every couple chapters they changed, like addie larue or something like that.

but, one thing i didn't really like was how slow the writing was. like, i think that so much of this book was just so slow, mainly because of all the jumping that it didn't feel like it was a quick read or something. and like it might have been because the first part of this book was just kinda slow, but then it did get kind of better and quicker than the end of the book. but, it was honestly kind of a clusterfuck, but it was still kind of a mess. and i think with the writing, it was kind of a mess aswell, like i feel like it tried to be way to poetic, which it didn't really work, because it honestly felt like it was being way to poetic and that it was kind of a mess. and in my opinion, they just tried way to hard to do it, and it didn't really work.

Book Review: I Am Margaret Moore by Hannah Capin

I Am Margaret Moore is a dark fictional novel about first love, betrayal and sisterhood. It has elements of young adult suspense and the paranormal.
Told in a non-linear lyrical style I Am Margaret Moore is the tale of a girl that falls head over heels for a boy at her elite sailing summer camp. But it is also a feminist story highlighting how adults often fail young girls but young men of wealth and privilege are protected at all costs. As the book slips and slides through time the reader is left questioning everything and it is clear that our narrator is keeping secrets even from herself.
I Am Margaret Moore is not an easy book to love. It is dark and slippery and tragic in so many ways. It has a beautiful poetic style with a lot of repetition and imagery which can be difficult to get into at first. But by the middle I found myself really appreciating the story and rooting for Margaret Moore. I recommend this one for readers that like moody atypical stories with tragic heroines and strong sisterhoods.
3.75 stars (rounded up to 4)

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advanced copy for review. All opinions are my own.

I truly enjoyed this book. The sisterhood between the friends is so empowering. The misogyny is so gross and I was cheering for the friends and Margaret by the end.

2.5 stars

I didn't know what I was expecting starting this book but it definitely wasn't what I got. And I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not. In this book, we follow (you guessed it) Margaret Moore as she has to face a pretty difficult situation. <spoiler> When she gets pregnant by accident, she doesn't find any help/support from her family or from the boy responsible for this.</spoiler>

This book was difficult to understand what was going on, it's mostly because of the writing style and when you think you get it and that things are starting to get better, the final part goes back to the beginning and it tells you nope, you'll have to figure it out the hard way.

Overall, the plot is interesting but I wish the execution would have been a bit different and easier to read/get through.

<i>(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley) </i>

A young adult paranormal thriller set in multiple timelines written in a lyrical prose. The story was just okay for me, and wanted to love this but I was not able to finish despite putting this down a few times to read when I am in the right head space. This may not just be for me. Thank you for the opportunity to read this.

Rich kids. Reparations. Revenge.

Marshall Naval School is where Margaret, Rose, Nisreen, and Flor can be themselves. But this year is different because some girls are missing, a boy is dead, and the rumors around the school are blaming Margaret Moore. A terrible incident happened the night of the storm and the big Victory Race at the end of the summer is cancelled, all because of Margaret Moore.

I don't want to recap the story because there were a lot of elements that I feel lead up to the twists and the reveal. I did guess part of one of the twists, but most of the book was shocking to me. And at one point, my jaw was literally on the floor in shock. I was invested in this story and the characters, but I will say it took me a little while to get into the book. I feel like the beginning was kind of slow, but it also helped to build the backstory and the history of Marshall Naval School.

A LOT of other reviews mention the writing style as being hard to follow and understand. It is a lyrical style, broken down into three parts, and it tends to be very short "chapters" inside of larger chapters within each part. I listened to the audio version and at times read along with my e-copy, and I honestly didn't have any issue with the writing style. I actually enjoyed the smaller chapters, most of them were only a few paragraphs. It really made the book move faster, at least for me. I also really like alternating timelines, and I thought that worked really well with this book, going back to the summer of the incident and the present summer.

Overall, I really ended up liking this book. I was blown away by the twists and turns, and I felt the ending was satisfying for how the rest of the story went. This will be a book I think about and recommend for a long time to come. 5 stars from me.

Time seems to stand still and move in strange ways while away at summer camp. From seeming to last forever, to being over in the blink of an eye, and thats exactly what happens in I am Margaret Moore. Capin brings beautiful, poetic language into this paranormal thriller where girls go missing, and questions are left unanswered till the past is dug up,

I will admit, the first half of this book was hard to read, but once things started to become a little more clearer, the words leapt off the page, and I couldn't stop reading.

I absolutely love Hannah Capin. Foul is Fair has to be one of my favorite reads ever. So I was extremely excited to get this on Netgalley. It did not disappoint.

Margaret Moore and her friends have spent their summers at the same summer camp since they could remember. One summer changes everything. The beauty of the writing, the extremely in depth characters, there was nothing about this book that I didn't love. I will admit I figured out the twist almost immediately but it took absolutely no joy away from the story.

Margaret and her group of friends are always together during the summer at Marshall Naval School. They are close and make the most of their summer together in this place that has become their special place where they don't have to worry about anything. But one summer, that all changes and everything begins to fall apart.

I Am Margaret Moore is a confusing mystery/paranormal thriller. The poetic writing is more of a stream of consciousness which leads to a lot of confusion at what is going on and the timeline shifting back and forth doesn't help either. It was hard to follow and really find a groove with the story.

With it being a stream of consciousness writing, with what feels like an unreliable narrator even, the story has many moments where it is repetitive. There are times when I thought that it was repeating one of the early moments with maybe a few more details, but that never seemed to be the case. It was just repetitive.

I think this story suffered in more ways than the lyrical writing and jumping timeline. By the end of it, I couldn't pick out a single personality trait about any of the characters. They all felt flat which didn't help pull me into the story.

I have to commend Capin for being willing to take such risks with the style, but this really didn't land with me.

Unfortunately, this story was not for me. While I typically enjoy difficult-to-understand writing, I’m not sure this format of YA paranormal thriller really fits with the writing style.

It was pretty difficult to figure out what was going on most of the time. Due to the non-linear format of the story, the reader has to be content with not completely understanding the timeline of events for the first half or so. Of course, this builds up the mystery, but the conclusion left me feeling unsatisfied.

unfortunately, this novel did not seem to interest much that much. i found myself putting off reading it for the longest time despite being intrigued initially by the description, then, when i began to read, i wanted to continuously put it down and would forget about it for days on end. to me, this novel just doesn't feel set apart.

Margaret Moore is a summer girl. Every summer she goes to the Marshall Naval Academy on Lake Nanweshmot to be with her friends, to be part of something larger than herself, to find out who she is. But something happened last summer, and she can’t remember all of it, but she knows something bad happened. And it was her fault.

Margaret is a part of Deck Five, a tight band of summer girls who have been together since the beginning. Their first summer they were Butterflies, collecting badges as they learned to sail and identify trees and shoot arrows. The second summer they were Dragonflies. But now they are almost women, strong and bonded tighter than sisters, Margaret and Rose and Nisreen and Flor. They are summer girls together, working hard and playing hard, inseparable and powerful.

But Margaret has a secret. There is a boy, and she can’t tell her friends about him. He asked her to keep them a secret, and she agreed. She kept secrets from her sisters, and she paid the price for that when she saw him with another girl. He had been driving her around, and the Deck Five girls were walking to the root beer stand, and most of the girls were able to jump out of the way of his car, but Margaret was slower to respond. Margaret is a poet and a dreamer, and she was paying less attention to the road in front of her. He almost hit her with his car, and she had to stand in the road and watch as he asked the girl in the car if she was okay. He didn’t ask Margaret. And she knew what it meant.

Her friends, her roommates, her sisters wanted her to tell them the truth. They said they would stand by her, no matter what. But she couldn’t find the words. She couldn’t tell them the truth. And that’s what came between them. That’s what became that thing that happened last summer. Although no one really knows what happened last summer. No one is talking. Margaret isn’t talking. But will she be able to find the words to bring her Deck Five sisters together again?

I Am Margaret Moore is a powerful story of growing up and figuring out who you are. Author Hannah Capin has woven together a tale of poetry and semaphores, sisterhood and ghosts, love and secrets that will change the way you think about boys and girls, about the have-some vs. the have-much, about love and power. Told by Margaret, her poetic voice transports the reader to those hot summer days where the air shimmers, the fireflies dance, and the stars are far too numerous to count.

I was enthralled by this book. The beginning speaks of secrets, of what happened last summer and of girls disappearing and of the ghosts at the academy. I was sucked in almost immediately, wanting to know what happened. I wanted to know Margaret’s secrets and find out everything that had happened, and I wanted to know what would happen next. I Am Margaret Moore is layered with truths that make sense to teenagers and then with truths that will turn you into an adult, and you can see Margaret transform from a naïve girl to a wise and powerful woman. This is a story that will fascinate and will haunt, and I know I’ll be carrying this one around for a while, trying to get my head around its fullness and its truths.

Egalleys for I Am Margaret Moore were provided by Wednesday Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

A lyrical, atmospheric paranormal YA thriller, I Am Margaret Moore follows a girl and everything she went through during this summer and last, seeking answers about the love she lost and learning how the secrets she kept affected those around her.

When I first started reading this book, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I love a good spooky book, and I thought this one would deliver just that. What I was not expecting, however, was to tear up and cry MULTIPLE times while reading it. The writing was so, so beautiful, and I think that played a big part in my emotions bubbling up so strongly. I physically felt Margaret's emotions at the time; I could relate to much of what she went through on a deep level. This book isn't going to be for everyone - I totally understand that - but it hit me so hard, and I will be recommending it to everyone I can.

TW for death, poisoning.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC of I Am Margaret Moore by Hannah Capin.

I Am Margaret Moore is told in a poetic style similar to a narrative poem. It makes for a unique storytelling technique that I personally loved. It reminded me of reading Shakespear, but others may find it disorienting. Because of this, the story does not unfold at a typical pace but has a haunting quality that keeps those who love mysteries turning the page. Also, this is a paranormal novel but it’s not as obvious as many other novels in the genre.

The main character, Margaret, is the narrator of the novel and is in the middle of processing a lot of trauma at the beginning of the story. So while she’s a compelling storyteller, she is difficult to connect to. However, there are many characters around her that are easy to identify with and through their love of Margaret, the reader grows to love her too. The four girls the book focuses on have beautiful chemistry and one of the best group friendships I’ve seen in a book.

This story is set entirely within the grounds of Marshall, a naval summer program that Margaret and her friends have spent every summer at since they were children. It was interesting learning the rules for this very specific corner of what would have otherwise been a familiar world. There are also some small paranormal elements thrown in that absolutely loved stumbling upon.

This story is set entirely within the grounds of Marshall, a naval summer program that Margaret and her friends have spent every summer at since they were children. It was interesting learning the rules for this very specific corner of what would have otherwise been a familiar world. There are also some small paranormal elements thrown in that absolutely loved stumbling upon.

I’m looking at other reviews for this book on various sites and I’m seeing that my rating–and even my interpretation and reading of this book–is very different from most others. Mainly in that I loved every single bit of this book and totally understood every choice the author made.

It started out a little rough in the first 10% or so, as I tried to get my bearings and figure out what exactly was going on and why the author chose the narrative and prose styles used. Once I had that down I totally tucked into this beautifully-written, tragic, and yet triumphant book.

Some readers will have an issue with the prose and narrative in this novel, and that’s understandable. It’s a mix of lyrical prose, a touch of freeform poetry, and an ephemeral time-stream-of-consciousness. It’s definitely experimental, but devastatingly beautiful and perfect for this book (unlike some other books with experimental writing I’ve read this year so far).

There are just so many layers and themes in this book: misogyny, halcyon summers, how there are some places where you are always your authentic self to the exclusion of all others, and how there are some people you can only be your authentic self around without worrying about the eyes of the world outside judging you and holding you to certain expectations.

I especially loved the constant references to the term “naiad”. Naiads, in mythology, are female guardians of still waters. They can be deadly (look at what happened to poor Hylas), and the waters they inhabit have the ability to heal. In Greek mythology, boys and girls cut off a lock of their hair and tossed it into the local spring inhabited by their naiad at their coming-of-age ceremony. Once you read the book you’ll see why the double-meaning of naiads (both in an etymological way and an unmentioned mythological way) makes a stunning amount of sense in a macabre and beautiful manner.

Also, There’s a poem mentioned, quoted, and repeated in parts by Emily Dickonson called “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun”, which is about keeping women silent–about taking away their voices. And this theme looms very large in the book.

I was entranced by this stunning book, written so carefully and gorgeous I couldn’t stop reading. I knew what was going to happen. I knew what was happening. But that was absolutely okay with me because it let me get lost in the words… and those words were worth the entire trip.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

"...𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝."

This complex standalone took me a week to read. A week full of moments where I considered cutting my losses and moving on to other books. Let me explain why I'm thankful I stuck it out.

Capin's previous novel (𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘭 𝘐𝘴 𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘳) was one of my favorite reads of 2020. It was dark, unapologetic, and defiant in a way I'd rarely seen in the contemporary genre. So you can understand my excitement level upon picking up her newest novel.

Unlike its predecessor, however, 𝐈 𝐀𝐦 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐨𝐨𝐫𝐞 did not instantly win me over. I struggled, initially, with its clashing timelines, formatting, and heavy use of Naval jargon. This confusion coupled with a slow pacing structure is why I considered jumping ship. But I kept reading and 𝐈𝐀𝐌𝐌's lyrical writing style soon became clearer and easier to follow.

A stronger second half revealed not only the answers to "what happened last summer," but also established the central theme of the narrative: the unfair double standards placed upon young girls. And its in the poetic exploration of this unfortunate reality that this novel truly shines.

Margaret's story is able to highlight how boys are often measured by their potential, but girls solely by their purity. How girls are denied agency in decision making because "they're not old enough to know what they want," but also treated as women who "must live with the consequences of their actions." Even if those actions were also made by their "faultless," and thus not responsible, male counterparts.

At the end of the day, this mystery won't be for everyone. Margaret Moore has a complicated story to share, and it demands focus to be told. This isn't one you should listen to on 3X speed or read while watching TV. Your full attention is required for her justice.



Trigger Warnings: Death, murder, abortion, bullying, grief, infidelity, drowning, emotional abuse/manipulation

I think I went into this looking for something different than what it turned out to be. The synopsis (on GR) says it's a paranormal thriller, but I really don't think it was. I don't know if it was supposed to be a bit of a mystery, because aspects of the story felt very obvious to me, so waiting for information to eventually be revealed was frustrating.

The writing was lovely, and very lyrical, but the style lacked much dialogue and actually made it difficult for me to get through, and I never actually got the sense of friendship and sisterhood that I think I was supposed to.

I appreciated the story being told and that it was stylistically different from what I usually read, and I do think the writing style will be perfect for some readers, but I just don't think I was the right reader for this book.

Hannah Capin maybe the smartest author out there when it comes to retellings. Do I feel frustrated with the characters and everything going on? ABSOLUTELY! But! Is it an accurate and enjoyable retelling? Oh you bet your french toast it is!