Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Hang The Moon

I forget how much I love Depression-era stories until I come across books like this. There’s so much grit to be found, especially when the book is so character driven. I hung on every word and was completely immersed.

When her stepmother dies, Sallie Kincaid is finally called home after being sent away at the age of eight. She’s thrilled by this second chance to reclaim her place in her family and redeem herself as a big sister to her half-brother, Eddie. It doesn’t take long for her to realize that she might be in over her head. Nevertheless, she refuses to back down from a challenge. She isn’t afraid to do whatever it takes to prove herself worthy of her father’s affection.

The longer Sallie is home, she realizes that her father is far different from the man she remembers. What’s more is that she doesn’t know much about her own past, especially surrounding her mother’s death. When Duke remarries, even more secrets rise to the surface.

I ate up the in-depth timeline in which the story is told. Most of the events of the book happen in real-time which made it hard to pause reading. It’s also extremely character driven which I love. It’s overall an emotional and dark story in its way. All that said, there was a lot of information and characters to digest. Honestly, I’d say too many, especially when it comes to Sallie’s complicated family tree. I’m still not positive about all of the relationships. Still, I was thoroughly engrossed from start to finish. Sometimes that’s difficult for me to find.

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suzydunk's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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kimveach's review

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emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I had read reviews that raved about this book, so I was expecting to love it. I liked the story, but it didn't meet my expectations.

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mels_reading_log's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was wild. It follows the life of Sallie Kincaid and her life growing up in a powerful family in a rural mountain town in the 1920s. Sallie is not like normal girls of this time, she wants to do the dirty work, drive fast cars and carry a gun. With the death of family members you go through the politics of a powerful family changing command and the chaos that ensues. I was not immediately drawn in to this book, but by the end I could not wait to see what was going to happen next.

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noble_editorial's review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was excited to read this one, anticipating a gritty Prohibition-era tale full of drama, tension, and intrigue. Unfortunately, this book just didn't deliver that for me. I wanted to feel immersed in 1920s Virginia, but that just didn't happen and the whole story fell rather flat for me.

Sallie had great potential as the MC, and her father was quite interesting, but the cast of characters grew too unwieldy as the story progressed and diluted my interest in all of them, never mind the confusion of keeping track of them all. The chemistry between the characters didn't feel very authentic, either.

I found the pacing was off, with a time jump that pulled me out of the story near the beginning, and a lack of tension throughout. The action never felt particularly high-stakes, and the events leading to exposed secrets and family drama required too much of a suspension of disbelief for me to remain invested in Sallie's story.

I think the premise of this book had fantastic potential, but the execution just didn't work for me. I prefer this author's narrative nonfiction. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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lindsayerin's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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lifewithjoce's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I knew nothing about this book before I started it, seeing only Jeannette Walls’ name and decided that was enough to make the book worth the read. Hang the Moon is a story of a young adult woman (18 at the start) coming into her own during the Prohibition era. Born to the most prominent family in town, Sallie Kincaid is exiled to her aunt’s house when her father remarries, and then brought back home after her death. It’s from there that the book really kicks off, exploring the story of how the town copes with death and fills the power dynamics hole that is created when a leader dies.

While the historical fiction genre is a tad bit oversaturated with “strong young woman who doesn’t want marriage” characters, Walls managed to make this book different by making the general Kincaid family—and the town—a character as well. The main focus is Sallie growing up, but we also see the town growing and changing as well. I was rooting for Sallie, but I was also rooting for the town to succeed. No matter what happened, I wanted the Duke, Mattie, Sallie, Mary, and everyone else to do right by Clayborn County.

There was a strong focus on social justice politics, from the way women are treated to the way Black members of the town are treated. Sallie was, of course, always on the right side of these political debates, but the way she learns about various secrets and the way she reacts to them felt extremely accurate to an 18 year old girl. For the majority of the book, Walls managed to make her point about the protection of women, and make that a major point of the novel, without endowing Sallie with knowledge that would be unrealistic for her to know. In the last few chapters, she emphasized the “roads help women” narrative a bit too much for my taste.

Full Review: https://writethroughthenight.com/2023/04/01/hang-the-moon-is-a-historical-fiction-entry-to-the-new-adult-genre/

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