My rating for Black Moon: 2.5 Stars
Biggs is trying to figure out why everyone has insomnia, even his wonderful wife, Carolyn. The tell tale red rimmed eyes. The slurred speech. A cloudy mind. All signs of this dreaded phenomenon and yet Biggs can still sleep and dream. So he sets out into the world where he discovers others like him, who can sleep and dream, which fight the tide of insomnia and try to discover what is causing this while searching for his wife. But as sleep becomes more precious than gold, some will even kill to have it.
My personal review:
I really, really tried to get into this book but for the life of me, what I thought would be an interesting read turned out to be one confusing mess of a story, so much so I had to put it down more times than I can count in order to read something that made sense to me. Mr. Calhoun’s writing was tight and sharp yet the way the story played out left me scratching my head in confusion many times.
The characters start off interesting then turn into oblivion as they go off and the author doesn’t let the reader know what happens to them. The sleeplessness doesn’t turn people into zombies but something similar or so that was what I got from this yet it isn’t a zombie novel. Cue the head scratching again. Then we get half way through BLACK MOON and the author totally twists the story inside out and has characters popping up, leaving, no direction whatsoever and more, we get vested into them and they leave. No idea where they went, what happened to them or anything, which annoyed me. I like being invested in the characters as it makes the story richer, fuller and just more enjoyable. Yet Mr. Calhoun completely threw his characters under the bus as he weaves his story so there is no follow up, no completion or anything. If you are invested in a character in BLACK MOON then be prepared to find that they seem to just go away with no by your leave.
BLACK MOON could have been a really good story if the author stayed on point, kept his characters on track and let the reader imagine a world where life as you know it collapses as people succumb to insomnia and the effects it can cause as well as the people trying to solve that mystery ailment. I just wish the author kept on track with this one and I would have enjoyed it more. Over all, if you enjoy complicated weird stories, then you will enjoy BLACK MOON but if you are like me and enjoy a rich dynamic storyline then I would pass on this one.
About the Author
KENNETH CALHOUN has had stories published in The Paris Review, Tin House, and the 2011 Pen/O. Henry Prize Collection, among others. He lives in Boston, where he is a graphic design professor at Lasell College. Black Moon is his first novel.
Links:
http://www.randomhouse.com/author/177469/kenneth-calhoun
I received the book via Blogging for Books for this review
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