MOONGLASS by Jessi Kirby

Okay, so I don't read a whole lot of contemporary YA. I don't know why; I think it's because a story is more exciting (to me) if there's the possibility that someone could be reading someone else's mind, or they could spontaneously throw flames from their hands. I mean, come on.

But MOONGLASS changed all that for me.

I loved this YA contemporary novel.

First a bit about the novel: When Anna was little, she and her mother used to search for sea glass, but since they looked at night, they called it moonglass. Now, ten years after her mother's mysterious death, her father is working as head lifeguard on the same beach where her mother grew up and her parents first met and fell in love.

Reluctant to get close to anyone (including her father) and not pleased about having to start at a new school, Anna begins to spend more time alone, running the length of the beach and wondering about who her mother really was. After meeting a lifeguard named Tyler, she slowly lets her guard down and together they start exploring the abandoned houses that dot the beach.

But when learning more about her mother's past leads to a painful discovery, Anna must reconcile her desire for solitude with ultimately accepting the love of her family and friends.

I could name ten reasons why I loved this book, but ultimately it came down the authenticity in emotion that drove the nail home.

There's this scene at the end of the book, where Anna acted exactly the way I wanted her to, but not exactly the way most authors would've written it. That's when I knew I needed to give contemporary a fighting chance. Because of authors like Jessi Kirby who dared to write that emotional, gut-wrenching scene in the exact way it demanded to be written.

I even emailed Jessi to tell her. MOONGLASS is just that good. Buy it. Read it. Cry about it. Email Jessi.




Check out what the other Bookanistas are up to this week at the Reading Room.

Or on their blogs:

• Shelli Johannes-Wells chats with Pure and The Summer of Firsts & Lasts author Terra McEvoy
• Carolina Valdez Miller is giddy over Moonglass – with giveaway
• Beth Revis admires the audiobook of Anansi Boys
• Shana Silver delves into Divergent
• Sarah Frances Hardy gabs about Gossip from the Girls Room
• Lisa and Laura Roecker and Carrie Harris have a passion for Possession
• Stasia Ward Kehoe glories in a guestanista review of The Rendering
• Megan Miranda swoons over Strings Attached
• Matt Blackstone is tantalized by Bad Taste in Boys
• Christine Fonseca raves about It’s Raining Cupcakes