Half Moon Bay: A Novel
Written by Alice LaPlante
Narrated by Gabra Zackman
2.5/5
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About this audiobook
Jane loses everything when her teenage daughter is killed in a senseless accident. Jane is devastated, but sometime later, she makes one tiny stab at a new life: she moves from San Francisco to the tiny seaside town of Half Moon Bay. She is inconsolable, and yet, as the months go by, she is able to cobble together some version of a job, of friends, of the possibility of peace.
And then, children begin to disappear. And soon, Jane sees her own pain reflected in all the parents in the town. She wonders if she will be able to live through the aching loss, the fear all around her. But as the disappearances continue, she begins to see that what her neighbors are wondering is if it is Jane herself who has unleashed the horror of loss.
Half Moon Bay is a chilling story about a mother haunted by her past. As Stewart O’Nan said about Turn of Mind—this novel “blindfolds the reader and spins her around.”
Alice LaPlante
Alice LaPlante is an award-winning writer whose bestselling books include Half Moon Bay, A Circle of Wives, Method and Madness—The Making of a Story, and the New York Times bestseller Turn of Mind. She taught creative writing at Stanford University where she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow and in the MFA program at San Francisco State University. She lives with her family in Mallorca, Spain.
More audiobooks from Alice La Plante
Write Yourself Out of a Corner: 100 Exercises to Unlock Creativity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTurn of Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Half Moon Bay: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
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Reviews for Half Moon Bay
12 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I've really enjoyed Alice LaPlante's previous two books and was eager to read her latest - Half Moon Bay.Jane is very emotionally wounded. She has moved to the small town of Half Moon Bay from San Francisco. She has found work at a nursery, but avoids people as much as possible. When young children start to go missing in Half Moon Bay, she becomes a suspect. You see, her own daughter died in San Francisco.I chose to listen to Half Moon Bay. The reader was Gabra Zackman. She did an excellent job capturing Jane's confusion, fogginess and grief with her interpretation of LaPlante's character. Her voice is measured, easy to understand and well modulated. Zackman has a nice gravelly tone to her voice that makes it quite pleasant to listen to. Listen to an excerpt of Half Moon Bay.So great narrator, but for me the book was a miss. A wounded, unreliable lead is a great addition to a mystery. But Jane's inner monologues go 'round and 'round to the point where I got quite bored of her angst. This rambling discourse had me tuning out. Jane's 'oddness' is reiterated over and over again, punctuated by two other workers at the nursery. Adam is just as odd, so of course the listener suspects him as well. Honestly, I could not buy Adam's attraction to Jane at all. And Jane's attraction and relationship with also newly transplanted to Half Moon Bay couple Edward and Alma. Sorry, big what the heck, ugh and really? The final ending and 'whodunit'? Telegraphed well in advance. And the reason? Sorry, can't buy that either.The cover is great and the descriptions of Jane's plants and the physical settings were well done. But overall? Sorry, I can't recommend this one at all.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I received a free advance e-copy of this book from the author and have chosen to write an honest and unbiased review. I have no personal affiliation with the author. This book is poorly written. Couldn’t make heads or tails of most of it. I don’t recommend this book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5: I enjoyed Alice LaPlante’s book, Turn of Mind and was very excited to get this ARC of her new book coming out this July. I have to say I was surprised that this book only had 259 pages since it seemed like at least 1,000 pages long to me. I probably wouldn’t have finished it but I kept thinking it would get better soon…it didn’t. You would think that a book that children disappearing from the small seaside town of Half Moon Bay would be a lot more interesting, but no.Jane has lost her teenaged daughter in a traffic accident and is having great difficulty coping. After getting into serious trouble in San Francisco where she lived with her husband and daughter before the accident, she decides to move to Half Moon Bay. She cobbles together a sort of piecemeal life with a job at a nursery and sort of friends in the town. When a new beautiful couple move into town, Jane is smitten with both of them as they take her under their wing. Again, this sounds like it should be a very good story, but alas, it’s not. I feel bad not liking this book because I do like the author.