2.75

I have read Capin's two other novels: I rated DEAD QUEENS CLUB 3 stars because it was a bit overwhelming, and FOUL IS FAIR 4 stars because I liked it a lot. All this to say that I am aware of Capin's writing style and generally have no issue with it, but I just really don't think it worked for this one.

IAMM was incredibly repetitive to a point that got genuinely annoying, and I think that in and of itself had to do with how it was written and laid out. I also felt no connection to Margaret or her friends, which led me to almost not caring about what happened. To add onto that, I was spoiled on the big twist in the second part from a content warning I saw on StoryGraph, and the BIG twist was extremely obviously from the first 50 or so pages.

I loved the story idea, the setting was interesting (though completely outside of my realm of life -- a naval academy camp? hard pass for me irl), and I wished I was attached to Deck Five. I just wish the story was told in a more "normal" writing style because I think it would've been a lot better.

Still definitely looking forward to whatever Capin writes next, but this just wasn't something I gelled with.

Wednesday Books and NetGalley sent me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

By all rights I should hate this book. It is surreal and fragmented; stream of consciousness and filled with characters that do stupid things. But that’s the thing about a really good book. A really good book will find a way, no matter its style or genre, to grab you by the throat and make you want more. I am Margaret Moore is a chaotic and lyrical masterpiece, with language like broken paint chips of beautiful colour. It is painful and haunting, but it screams to every part of growing up a girl, and learning the world isn’t fair and love might not always be worth it, but loyalty is.
I am getting ahead of myself.
The first thing that struck me about this novel was how beautiful the writing is. It is over 300 pages, but I felt none of that because the words Capin spun drew me onward. I finished this in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down. Among that beauty is pain and mystery. Who is Margaret Moore, and who are these girls that are so connected to her? What did they do and what was done to them? As time lines fracture and the narrative moves from past to present to past over and over again, Margaret guides you through. She tells you as she remembers it, and that is probably what makes her confessions so captivating.
I know I haven’t told you much. It is difficult to mention the plot, the characters, any of it without betraying the secrets of this book. It is an experience, and one I highly recommend, though it will probably leave you sobbing by the end.
To speak plainly, this is the easiest 5 stars I have given out so far this year.

WOW! A powerful ode to female friendship, and a bit of a love letter to the intense summer camp experience, I am Margaret Moore is another novel from Capin about friends who love each other fiercely and without compromise. Warning: this novel is written in stream-of-consciousness first person, and skips around a lot between summers (of course - it's the same way memory works). But once you get used to the prose, the power of the voice of a teenage girl, and all the emotion of a first love, and love for friends, shines through.

"I am a girl. I am a monster, too.

Each summer the girls of Deck Five come back to Marshall Naval School. They sail on jewel-blue waters; they march on green drill-fields; they earn sunburns and honors. They push until they break apart and heal again, stronger.

Each summer Margaret and Rose and Flor and Nisreen come back to the place where they are girls, safe away from the world: sisters bound by something more than blood.

But this summer everything has changed. Girls are missing and a boy is dead. It’s because of Margaret Moore, the boys say. It’s because of what happened that night in the storm.

Margaret’s friends vanish one by one, swallowed up into the lies she has told about what happened between her and a boy with the world at his feet. Can she unravel the secrets of this summer and last, or will she be pulled under by the place she once called home?"

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a unique book and non-traditional style. Unfortunately it was not for me. I tried picking it up several times in the last few months but never really got excited about it. The narrative and structure of the words was not the style that I was expecting. It was poetic at times. There was also jumping back and forth which made the beginning hard for me to get into. I think some will enjoy this story, but not me.

I really wanted to like this one because the premise was intriguing but unfortunately I just could not vibe with the writing style. It was, honestly, a bit of a slog to get through. It doesn't help that everything is honestly too confusing and I couldn't follow what was happening. I understand moving timelines and non-linear storytelling but this jumped way, way past that and straight into incomprehensible.

Thank you so much to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the eARC of this haunting, sorrow-driven narrative. What I am coming to realize about Hannah and her work is that she gives a voice to downtrodden and wronged women everywhere. With 'Foul is Fair', it was a revenge story. It was nails on a chalkboard, it was a scream in the dead of night. Margaret Moore took a softer approach, but no less distressing. Margaret is a stifled cry for help, an unrelenting icy cold grip on your wrist. I could not put this story down; it went from a bond between friends, to a budding first love, to finally-- a belated look in the proverbial mirror and seeing oneself for the first time.

When we meet Margaret Moore, she is reminiscing about her summers with her best friends at camp. The links between the girls are tested as Margaret gets closer and closer to one of the boys at the barracks. Margaret's heart is taken advantage of, and soon she becomes one of the tragedies surrounding Marshall Naval Camp. As she attempts to unravel what happened the summer that changed her forever, Margaret found the voice that she lost in the storm of life. She speaks for the girls whose innocence were taken from them too soon, for those that have loved and lost, and the rest of the tongues that have been tied by families with money. The entirety of Deck Five is haunted by the mystery of Margaret, but not a one of them as much as her friends. Eventually, however, Flor, Rose, and Nisreen all move on; but Margaret never leaves.

It is with Hannah's signature poetic prose that this tale of a girl's life shattered as finitely as a wherry on rocky, choppy waters is woven into a truly devastating tapestry. I can't stand to think of the young girls who are given no choice but to grow up too quickly. Hannah handles these plots with care, but with an overwhelming amount of venom that will course through your veins and make you want to act. I loved the supernatural twist in this book-- it gives such a stunning twist to this already thrilling drama. I can't wait to see what the next endeavor from Hannah will be. One thing I do know is that it will turn the tables on every masculine trope you've ever read.

I did not enjoy the writing style of this at all. It was difficult to follow. It was very lyrical but not at the same time. I also didn't like the random jumps in timelines. The story overall was hard to follow imo.

I have a lot of thoughts about this one (when don't I?), so here we go!

I think the bill is going to split on this book. Either people are going to absolutely love it or they're going to hate it and I do think there will be a small margin of people (like myself) who were somewhere in the middle, but see the value in a novel like this, so rated it a little bit higher.

People who will love this novel: love a good trail of breadcrumbs, are fine with plot sometimes being sacrificed for prose, can identify and appreciate the use (maybe overuse?) of anaphora, can stomach dark material, loved We Were Liars, and champion a strong, feminist theme.

I'm giving this four overall because I think the story is important. There were things I didn't love-- like the long, dream-like sequences where the author completely forgot about the plot and turned the book into one long extended metaphor. I also think it treaded way too close to We Were Liars for my own comfort. Not just in overall plot, but in style, too. The writing is fantastic, but I feel like it lacked it's own voice. I still liked it enough to give it a 4/5, and I'd recommend it. I'd just caution people that it certainly isn't going to be universally beloved, but sometimes I think that's what makes good literature. It gives us a lot to discuss. This one would definitely fall comfortably in what I'd consider strong YA literature.

I received an ARC courtesy of @netgalley in exchange for my honest review!

Very flowery and lyrical writing! I enjoyed the voice of this novel and the things it’s trying to say a lot! I do feel that the flowery writing at times made it hard to ground my head in the story, but overall really enjoyed listening to this YA thriller from Hannah Capin! 3.75 Stars!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.
First off, I would like to thank Netgalley and Wednesday Books St. Martin’s Press for the eARC of this novel. Hannah Capin wrote a beautiful novel, but I didn’t quite like the format. I feel that this may have been due to the fact that I was reading this virtually rather than in a physical book, and Capin’s poetical and repetitive writing style was hard to follow in the electronic format.
While I found the story hard to follow at times, I still liked the overall plot, the friendships between Margaret and her three best friends, and the paranormal aspect to the naval summer camp. Even though I struggled at times to understand what was going on, I still could not put this book down. This was the first book by Capin that I’ve read, and I look forward to checking out her other work.
*If you liked We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, you would probably like I Am Margaret Moore! Like We Were Liars, this novel has you as confused as the main character is until finally the truth is revealed.

I always give my honest opinion and feedback on books I review, and this one is no different. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as I hoped I would. I found the book to just ramble and ramble, and frankly at times it was hard to figure out what was happening.
The book follows Margaret (Mar) Moore, and it incorporates her 3 best friends, Nisreen, Flor, and Rose. These are the "Deck Five Girls" at the military camp that the girls have all attended together since they were in elementary school. They are as close as can be, but there is a horrible secret that Mar has been withholding from them since the summer before. The secret is beginning to tear her up inside, and she knows she needs to let her girls in, and tell them what happened so they can help her to make sure justice is served.

Hannah Capin has been one of my favorite young adult authors for a few years now and this is another excellent book rich with storytelling and loveable characters. Very much looking forward to recommending this to my students.

2.5 stars

DNF 40%

I really struggle with this book so I requested the audiobook to see if that helped.

Unfortunately it didn't

even though I like lyrical writing style, for some reason this writing style wasn't for me.

Also, I'm not a huge fan of alternative timelines. It takes a lot of skills to make it flow well for me. It really didn't help me immerse in the experience. I was confused and couldn't connect.

Summers at Marshall Naval School is one of precision and order. For the girls of Deck five it is about routine and tradition until girls go missing and a boy is dead.
.
They say it’s because of Margaret Moore. Can she save them all or swallow them whole?
.
A haunting tale with a dark atmosphere this was beautifully written. Thank you @wednesday books for an advanced copy.

I was intrigued by the description of the book, I Am Margaret Moore, by Hannah Capin and was excited to delve into it. I have not read anything else by Hannah Capin and was a little put off by her writing style, but pushed through because I was anticipating a great story, which I never really found. The way the story was divided & the jumping around in the timeline was difficult to follow and by about halfway through, I really did not care about any of the characters or their story.

It seems like there is a wide range of reviews on this book, so maybe I was not the right reader and others will get much more out of this book.

I read some spoilery reviews, mostly to see what the paranormal aspect of the book was. I wasn’t really impressed by it and showed me I was right not to carry on. I chose not to finish early on since I wasn’t able to get into the verse style of writing. I’m totally fine with a book in verse, I just couldn’t get into this one.

Another reason was definitely the characters. I didn’t like Margaret at all. Found her boring as anything. Her friends were a bit more interesting but once again, not enough to keep me reading.

I was annoyed by the fact that we barely see any hint of any type of paranormal activity and I checked the reviews and some said it only appears quite far into the book and even then barely. Quite disappointing.

While I did like the lyrical parts and it could be soothing at times, it could also be a bit boring. The book felt like it was pushing the naval camp as this elite thing and that was also very boring for me.

I am Margaret Moore is a young adult paranormal thriller. The story follows four girls Margaret, Rose, Flor and Nisreen and one summer that forced the girls to come together.

I drug this book out for a long time just because I honestly just struggled getting into it. The chapters were short and choppy and the longer the story went on the more repetitive the storyline became. The book was confusing but I believe that was intentional to hiding the major reveal towards the end of the book.

The ending was fine - it delivered the revenge I was hoping for but overall I just struggled trying to get into this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hannah Capin for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Very bizarre book & difficult to follow & finish. Just strange & not engaging at all in my opinion. Hard to finish this one.

When I got the email from NetGalley that I Am Margaret Moore was available to “Read Now,” I jumped on it. I had this book on my TBR since I saw that Hannah Capin was publishing it. I had loved Foul is Fair and had high expectations for this book. Well, I Am Margaret Moore fell short of my high expectations.

I Am Margaret Moore is the story of Margaret and her friends. The summer before, Margaret was involved in a scandal with another camper and was sent away. This summer, she was going to move past the drama and enjoy her summer. But things don’t go the way she wants. Her friends want the truth about what happened last summer, and Margaret isn’t telling them. Because if she tells the truth, she’s afraid no one will believe her. What happened that night?

I will be very blunt; I wasn’t a fan of how the author wrote this book. There are no chapters. Instead, once a scene ended, some headers separated them (example: The Girls with paragraphs describing Margaret’s friends). I get why the author chose to write the book she did, but I like cut-and-dry chapters.

The flow of I Am Margaret Moore was choppy, and the timeline jumped around a lot. I couldn’t tell if I was in the past or present. Again, I get why the author did this, but for me, it didn’t work.

I wasn’t too sure about how I felt about Margaret. During the first half of the book, I couldn’t connect with her at all. But, by the second half of the book, I did start to like and pity her. Yes, pity. She had so much happened to her in a short amount of time.

Margaret’s friends were the true backbone of the book. They were determined to find out what happened to Margaret. That led to disciplinary action from the naval school, but that didn’t deter them.

There are a couple of twists in the plot that I saw coming. I guessed the first one right away, and once certain events happened in the second half of the book, I figured that out too.

I wasn’t a fan of the end of I Am Margaret Moore. Again, it was choppy, with events playing out of order—the choppiness and the fact that the HEA seemed thrown on as an afterthought.

I would recommend I Am Margaret Moore to anyone over the age of 16. There is implied sex, some kissing scenes, mild language, and mild violence.

I went into I Am Margaret Moore with high hopes and expectations. But unfortunately, I was not the right reader for this book. It's written in almost a stream of consciousness style from Margaret's POV and constantly shifts time periods without many indicators. I struggle with this writing style at the best of times and for this book it resulted in a really disjoined reading experience for me. When I was able to get past the style, the messages at the story's core resonated with me: the bonds of friendship, the way women are used and silenced and how sexuality is treated by society and in this case a very traditionally patriarchal industry (the Navy).

While this book wasn't a fit for me, I really enjoyed Capin's Foul is Fair and will definitely read her future work and encourage others to do so as well.

Thank you to Wednesday Books, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ecopy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Expected pub: 15 Mar 2022