Long Bright River ★★★★☆

Long Bright River (Click Here To Buy)

★★★★☆

Long Bright River is a novel by Liz Moore

I read this book on my Kindle on loan from the library as a recommendation from Barack Obama.

This story is about Philadelphia Police Officer Michaela “Mickey” Fitzpatrick and her search for her sister Kacey, who is an addict and a sex worker, while trying to solve a series of murders involving young women.

This is a sad book. It’s very well written and well researched and reveals crucial elements of the story in a plot-twist-like fashion that pulls the reader along, but it’s sad. Addiction can be ugly and complicated and affects the entire community.

This review would not be complete without acknowledging that it is a book with a police officer as the main character - I support the Black Lives Matter movement and I am against the racially motivated violence against Black people by police officers. As I read this book, I came to see that yes this woman is a police officer, but more poignantly she is a woman who has been mistreated by male predators operating under a corrupt system. Both police officers and people struggling with addition are often seen as either good or bad, when really we all have pieces of both. In the book, a neighbor is teaching Mickey's son chess and tells him of the pieces, “They’re bad and good, both, all the pieces…Depending.” This is a fitting description of these characters. The females in this book are strong and resilient, but the circumstances that have befallen them as a result of intergenerational trauma from the world they were born into is heart-wrenching. As a mental heath counselor, I just wish everyone would go to counseling.

There are a number of things that Moore does well with this book. The plot-twist-reveals is one, as mentioned above. Another is fleshing out the complicated social nature of addiction. Finally, this book makes Philadelphia as much of a character as the people. Moore accomplished this through extensive research that lasted the better part of ten years.

If you liked Long Bright River, I also recommend The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones, Room by Emma Donoghue, and Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes.

Happy Reading,

Ms.Bjork