Book Review: Beneath a Meth Moon

I purchased this book at a professional development event – where I met the author!  I knew very little about Woodson (I had read one of her picture books last summer and didn’t even realize it!) and I was curious to meet her.  She was interesting to listen to and had a positive energy about her when it come to writing.  Anyway, I purchased this book (and had it signed!) and was able to read it fairly quickly.

This book hit a big Ellen Hopkins vibe for me.  On one hand, yes because of the drug use/abuse, but on another… It seemed (mostly) realistic.  One complaint I had though was that I couldn’t imagine the characters.  I tried to, but they ended up as blobs.  … Not sure if that’s a comment about her writing or about my reading…

The only other complaint I had was that this book seemed to jump around a bit too much for me.  I liked that the story was not completely linear … But I didn’t feel like there were transitions from chapter to chapter.  Even after completing the book, I am not sure if I could tell someone what exactly happened in chronological order.  Maybe that was supposed to be a taste of the confusion from the drug user’s perspective… I’m not sure.

The reading level was easy – but I would not recommend the book for anyone younger than high school age.  

This book could be used for a writing project – have students write about what they think happened after the last page.  There was no cliff hanger really… But one thing I learned from Hopkins’s books – characters do not always follow the path that the author implies…

Overall, this was a decent read.  I’m not sure if I would have purchased the book if the author wasn’t right there to sign it though..  Not 100% disappointed, but had been expecting a little something more…

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