A Touching Chronicle of a Family in Crisis

SUMMARY
Malcolm Gephardt, a gregarious bartender in a small town, has always dreamed of owning his own bar. When Hugh, his boss, finally retires, he offers Malcolm the opportunity to buy The Half Moon. Malcolm jumps at the chance and quickly starts feeling the sting of financial distress. Within months he is unable to pay his suppliers. The bar puts a great deal of stress on Malcolm’s fifteen-year marriage to Jess.

Malcolm and Jess had already blown through all their savings over the past seven years on expensive fertility treatments. They now face the reality that parenting is not in the cards for them. Jess, an intelligent lawyer, is particularly devastated over this knowledge as she feels her youth slipping away.

Much of the novel occurs during a week when Malcolm hears earth-shattering news about Jess, a bar patron last seen at the bar, goes missing, and a freak blizzard paralyzes the town.


REVIEW
The Half Moon is a touching chronicle of a family in crisis. It’s a family drama plucked from real life, exposing the meaning of family and forgiveness. The frustrations of infertility, financial ruin, and mid-life in a small town play a considerable role in a story that explores the shocking depth people will go to when pushed to the brink.

The writing captures the gut-wrenching decisions that Malcolm and Jess have made over the years, leading them to the point of desperation. Jess and Malcolm’s character development is superb, making you feel their pain, frustration, and sadness.

Author Mary Bath Keene has woven a family drama that will strike at the heart of many mid-life couples asking themselves, “Is this all there is?”

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher Scribner
Published May 2, 2023
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

This is a rather melancholic look at a struggling marriage, business, infertility, and the loss of a couple’s hopes and dream.

A strong character-driven novel, there is no propulsive plot to keep you flipping the pages quickly. Instead, it’s one to read slowly and savor the writing and insights into the human heart when life doesn’t turn out as you’d hoped.

The characters are deeply flawed, and I admit I became annoyed at some of their choices. Malcolm is the owner of a struggling bar called The Half Moon and he and his lawyer wife, Jess, are dealing with financial and fertility issues along with infidelity. The story takes place over one week in the midst of a blizzard, utilizing flashbacks to gain an understanding of Malcolm and Jess’s past.

I’m drawn to quite contemplative stories about ordinary people dealing with hard things. While this didn’t have quite the impact of the author’s novel, Ask Again, Yes, I did enjoy it. The story is a heavy one, but, thankfully, the ending had a hopeful tone.

Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This isn't an action-packed, hold-onto-your-seats thriller/mystery/salacious drama. And while that appears to have been an issue for some, it wasn't for me.

The story takes place over the span of a single week and focuses on the crumbling state of its protagonists' marriage. Malcolm has worked at The Half Moon, a local bar that's a staple within the community, for nearly his entire life. Having bought it out from its previous owner, he is living the dream... only it has come at a cost and doesn't truly resemble what he'd imagined for himself. The strings attached to purchasing The Half Moon have taken their toll on his relationship with his wife, Jess, whose single (unfulfilled) wish in life has been to become a mother.

At the start of the narrative (which jumps back-and-forth between past and present in a way that I didn't especially love), Jess and Malcolm have been separated for several months. The variety of contributing factors are slowly revealed throughout the story (so I'll hold back on mentioning any specifics). In the peripheral, we have a debilitating winter storm and (relatedly) missing persons case occurring. I was impressed by the way these threads coalesced throughout, which is (IMO) the mark of a talented writer.

While it wasn't a perfect read, I can offer it what I feel is high praise -- if you're a fan of Ann Patchett or Celeste Ng, this is definitely in your wheelhouse.

Mary Beth Keane deftly weaves a story focused around a small moment in time. She is piercing in her capacity to capture the feelings that emerge when nothing is as it should be, and things fall apart. What does it mean to build a life you love? How do our choices trap us or free us? A slow unfolding of life and marriage in the fishbowl of a small town.

GENERAL INFO

Year Pub: 5/2/23

Date read: 5/9/23

Format: Kindle

Source: e-ARC- I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Page Count: 305

Setting: Gilliam, NY

Genre: Contemporary adult fiction, mystery

Tropes: small town, troubled marriage, business/financial woes

Standalone/Cliffhanger/Part of a Series: standalone

HEA/HFN ending: HEA

Epilogue Included: no

Character(s)POV Spoken: H Malcolm

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Synopsis/Plot Summary:
Malcolm Gephardt- longtime bartender at the Half Moon- always wanted to own a bar. When his boss retired, he goes into huge debt to buy it. His wife Jess devoted herself to becoming a lawyer. After years of trying for a baby using their savings for failed IVF treatments, her dreams of motherhood fade. Malcolm and Jess's dreams slip away, and they must reevaluate what's important.

Over the course of one week, Malcolm learns shocking news about Jess, a patron of the bar disappears, and a blizzard hits town. Can they come back from all that?

M/F-M/M-M/M/F-etc: M/F

CONTENT WARNINGS/TRIGGERS
adultery, infertility

AUTHOR OVERVIEW
Mary Beth Keane
New or read before & any favorites: new author

PERSONAL OVERVIEW

Overall Rating: 4*

Do You Recommend This Book: yes

Will You Re-read This Book: yes

Would You Read More Books by this Author: yes

COMMENTS/NOTES:

Flashback to the past-Jess is an aspiring lawyer and Malcolm a charming bartender. They marry and Jess gets pregnant. Unfortunately, she miscarries- but they make it through by leaning on each other.

In the present, we learn why they separated. Different priorities turn into different lives. There's infidelity and resentment. During a snowstorm, Jess and Malcolm question their life choices and what they could have done differently. It is a realistic, heart wrenching look at a marriage in trouble when you've both changed.

This book crept up on me in a good way, but it wasn’t my favorite by this author. But I enjoyed the themes of infertility and how that impacts a relationship. That was the most interesting and engaging aspect of the story. The side plot with the disappearance and the man from the bar didn’t work from me - seemed like a distraction from the main plot and looped in too many characters that were hard to keep track of. Enjoyed the writing.

3.5/5

When I saw Netgalley offering Mary Beth Keane's new book, The Half Moon, I was eager to request it. I heard Keane speak at our library immediately before everything shut down in 2020, and reading Ask Again, Yes afterwards was a highlight of that time. And sure, the bar was low, but seriously...she was a terrific speaker, and her book lived up to all the promise I held out for it. A testament to that is the fact that I also read Fever, which was arguably a sore subject by the time it came out, but I braved the typhoid epidemic story anyway.

In The Half Moon, Keane returns to her study of marriage and forgiveness, divided loyalties, and beautifully wrought, small-town life. The vividness of the setting, the flawed humanity of her characters, and the realistic struggles that they face combine for a compelling, compassionate tale. At some point midway I was unsure where Keane was going and ambivalent about how everything was going to be resolved, but she plowed ahead, and I followed. Somehow, she managed the slightly messy ending I had hoped for, without it seeming too contrived or set up. A powerful and satisfying story of marriage, family and friendship.

I enjoyed The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane but I wasn't fully blown away. I really loved the dual timelines, I feel like that's what kept me going even though the pacing felt a bit off. Unfortunately it felt like the story was dragging in the second half. I did appreciate the real depiction of love and struggles though, those elements I feel will hit home with many readers. Overall, if you liked Keane's previous work I recommend you try this one out.

Still collecting my thoughts from reading this book. What a ride.
The book follows an estranged couple, Jess and Malcolm, who has been married for a while and is struggling with infertility. And the strains that puts on the marriage when one feels like the other is not as invested in the process and feels lonely, unappreciated. Jess is a lawyer and Malcolm a bar manager turned owner. The additional responsibility of being a new owner of a bar puts additional strain on the marriage that is already struggling.
This is a highly character driven book. I love love love the writing. The writing is soo raw and heart tugging that i couldn’t put this book down. I was way too invested in the characters and their struggle and stories. There is a side plot too which i don’t think made any sense, hence the one star knocked down.
Definitely going to read more books by this author!

I liked Ask Again, Yes very much and while this story is very different, it too is compelling. Mary Beth Keane is wonderful!

I went into this book blind and had no idea what to expect while I was reading it. The story takes place over the course of one week with glimpses into the past. I found the most compelling aspects of the story to be Malcolm and Jess's pasts and how they had arrived at their current selves. Malcolm owns the bar, The Half Moon, he has dreamed of owning his whole career but struggles to keep it afloat. Jess's own dream of having a baby is slowly becoming unfulfilled. As both dreams start to fail, tension begins to build between the couple. Reading about their past and the decisions they both made that led to the present was the most interesting part of the story. The actual storyline of the week in which two massive snowstorms hit their town, felt to me like a diversion from the story of the Malcolm and Jess. There were some plot points that didn't serve too much of a purpose for me. I found that by the end everything was tied together really well, I just felt the some of the middle could have been avoided.

I thought the writing style here was really strong. I also borrowed the audiobook to listen to and I thought the audio really brought the words to life. Both narrators did a fantastic job with the story and I loved that sometimes the narrators would switch in the middle of the chapter to convey a different point of view. Overall, I liked the story and thought it was a well done family drama. I thought that by the end a lot of things got resolved pretty quickly and was mostly drawn to the Malcolm and Jess's pasts as we learned what brought them to this point. I would recommend this book to those who like family dramas!

The synopsis points out that the book takes place over one week, but in reading it, the flashbacks and how it all ended made it feel like much more. It was an eventful week, for sure, but a lot had happened that triggered some of the actions of that week, even if the sudden onset of a winter storm instigated a lot of immediate action too.

While Malcolm and Jess are the central characters of the story, their relationships with their mothers and their lifelong friends also presented more angles to the struggles they faced. Most of the story was from Malcolm’s perspective—he wanted to be supportive as Jess decided if she could feel part of a family of two if they didn’t have children, he struggled with keeping the bar he dreamed of owning afloat and while the bar was shut down for a few days while the whole town was without electricity, he had some unique drama regarding a regular at the bar who had gone missing at the same time the storm struck. So many life-altering decisions to be made over the course of a week spent largely in isolation while the storm caused everything to grind to a halt.

The story was a largely insightful family drama which earned 4 out of 5 stars. It was an enjoyable contemporary drama with engaging adult characters.

This is a very slow burn marriage drama. It gives you both POV, Malcom and Jess, as they struggle to detangle their marriage but also look back at where they started and who they were when they met and how they got to this point. It was equally heartbreaking as it was sweet and fulfilling. It was just such a slow burn and the marriage was already crumbling so far by the time we get to it, that it made the story a little slow to get me pulled in. I did like some of the topics it tackled - definitely be sure ot check TW before starting this one, there are a few in there. I'm glad I read it but I did wish it'd moved just a bit quicker, hooked me a little faster in the beginning, but I did like it.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

This is definitely something I normally don’t read and I absolutely loved it! I highly recommend starting and not quitting. It’s good!

The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane is a tender, honest view of a marriage that’s battle-scarred and weary. Keane paints a touching portrait of two people who start out very much in love, but find themselves exhausted, confused, and hurt by unrealized dreams.

The story unfolds in a suburban neighborhood over the course of a wintry week. Malcolm Gephardt is the charismatic, good-looking bartender-turned-bar-owner. He’s married to Jess, an ambitious attorney who longs for a baby. They both are struggling to face dreaded truths—the bar may not make it and Jess may not be able to have children.

As the couple fends off disappointments, the marriage takes the brunt of their grief. They each make decisions that could finally sink their relationship. When betrayals are exposed, a patron of the bar goes missing and a blizzard traps them, adding to the mounting stress Malcomb and Jess are already buried under.

Although the premise sounds heartbreaking, Keane’s light touch and beautiful writing results in a book that’s a gentle examination of two people who have reached the beginnings of middle age. She explores themes of forgiveness, disappointment, and intimacy in marriages and friendships.

I loved this book as much as I loved Keane’s award-winning Ask, Again, Yes. She’s a brilliant writer who understands the fragility and beauty of ordinary life.

The details of Malcom & Jess's life were specific and meaningful and made me care about them very much. Ultimately, this was a book about hope, which is a welcome lens through which to look at the world in these trying times,

This is a character driven novel about a husband and wife, Malcolm and Jess, who are newly separated after years of infertility, and betrayal. Malcolm is the owner of The Half Moon bar, and he finds out Jess has moved on. During a blizzard one of the regulars at the bar also goes missing. The book goes back and forth throughout Malcolm and Jess's marriage, so you get the full depth of what happened and how their marriage fell apart. The plot, and characters felt very real…and I thought it a was very well written story. I was definitely engrossed in this one.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own. Out May 2.

3.5 / 5 stars

I was really looking forward to this book. Ask Again, Yes is one of the most emotionally poignant novels I have read in a look time about family, relationships, and the effects of a catastrophe on those lives. I was fully expecting the nuanced drama of that book, but The Half Moon really surprised me. While the Half Moon also explores themes of marriage, family, and longing, the stakes were much lower. I kept waiting for a jaw-dropping moment (like the shooting in Ask Again, Yes or the breakdown of the neighbor) but it didn't come - and I was almost glad for that, because Ask Again, Yes was an emotional roller coaster!

In the interest of not making this a comparison about two very different books from the same author, I will say that I enjoyed this slow burn drama about the relationship between a husband and wife that has gone slightly off the rails. Can their love for each other and their dreams about the future be resurrected, despite them drifting apart due to a lengthy infertility journey, the secrets of a failing business, and infidelity? I enjoyed the backstories shared by Malcolm and Jess. They felt like fully-formed characters, and I could really understand their character motivations.

*Slight spoiler alert:
Given the resolution in Ask Again, Yes, I was not prepared for a "happy ending" for Malcolm and Jess but I appreciate how The Half Moon was able to tie up a lot of loose ends in its conclusion.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in return for my honest review.

The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane was a good book with an amazing story and characters. Definitely some triggering moments about a couple dealing with infertility for 10 years. You felt how the characters were feeling through everything. The author did a great job at describing the intricacies of relationships. There was even a little mystery in the story which is a nice touch.

I loved Mary Beth Keane’s first book so I was excited to read this one. HALF MOON follows a marriage in crisis, or a couple that is going through hard times. It was an emotional read with a bit of suspense. You don’t know if this couple has done too
much damage to survive and that’s part of the pull when you read this book. Very well done!