Moonrise tells the story of Joe and his older brother Ed. Joe hasn’t seen Ed for ten years because for the last ten years Ed has been on death row in Texas.
Now Ed’s date of execution has come through and Joe knows there time together is limited.
Moonrise is a tale about the strong bonds of brotherly love but it is also a scathing condemnation of the whole premise of capital punishment. A topic that never fails to fascinate me because I just don’t understand how it still exists and is still considered to be a valid and humane punishment.
I liked the way the author uses Ed’s situation to highlight the arbitrary nature of capital punishment. For example:
“Ed was convicted of shooting a cop, a pretty ugly thing to do. But you don’t see every killer getting the gurney some guys get fifteen years. Others get life. So death for Ed but not for everyone. Cos it all depends on who you kill and where you kill them too.
Like don’t shoot a white cop in Walker County, Texas. If that’s your plan, do it in Arlington New York – no needles or electric chairs there. Just doesn’t seem fair to me. Just seems a bit fucking random.”
Sarah Crossan has a beautiful way of writing that absolutely shone through in Moonrise. The chapters in this book are clearly not just thrown together, they are carefully considered. The fact that it is written as verse adds a whole new level to it.
Joe is seven when he receives a phone call from Ed asking to speak to their sister Angela or their mom. Nobody is in so he tells Joe he has been arrested for murder.
‘They think I did something real bad.’
I pressed the receiver tight against my ear.
‘What do they think you done?’
‘They think I hurt someone. But I didn’t. You hear?’
‘Yeah’
‘I mean it. You hear me?
Cos people are going to be telling you all kinds of lies.
I need you to know the truth.’
His mom tells him not to call Ed back and not to expect to hear from him for a long time. Joe can remember thinking his mum would be wrong and Ed would be home soon but that didn’t happen.
A year later Ed was sentenced and a year after that Joe’s mom left Joe and Angela for good. She left them with their Aunt Karen who was determined to turn things around for the family.
“Karen knew how to save our souls from falling into the darkness that had carried off our brother, and the first part of her plan was never to mention Ed again.”
Ten years after the phone call from Ed Joe finds himself looking a crummy apartment in Kirkland Texas after Ed asks him to come and visit him because he has received his date of execution.
Joe has barely enough money to cover renting an apartment and no money to eat but there is no one he can ask for help because he is family to the criminal not the victim.
“No one cares whether or not we get to be with Jo at the end,
How poor or hungry we are
The cop’s widow though?
If she sets up a crowd-funding account to buy a black dress and a matching hat,
You’d have people donating big time…
But we aren’t her –
We’re not the victims here.
Instead we’re on the other side of right-
Players for Team Wrong.”
Ed was like Joe’s substitute parent, best friend and brother all in one. Joe idolised him growing up but he barely knows him now. Over the summer Joe and Ed try to get to know each other again whilst dealing with the fact that this may be their last summer together.
It is a testament to Crossan’s writing that I felt as though I was feeling everything Joe and his family felt to the point where I had been in tears several times before I finished Moonrise.
My favourite thing about Moonrise is its message that we are better than the sum of the worst things we have done.
Even if you don’t read any other part of the book you have to read the chapter ‘Time Travel Me’ because it was amazing.

Hard-hitting, gritty, no punches pulled, yet full of as much compassion as drama

Moonrise is the story of Joe, who moves to Texas to be near his big brother Ed, on Death Row for a crime he says he didn’t commit, in the weeks leading up to his execution date. Joe is the only member of his family who makes the trip from New York – his mum disappeared not long after Ed went to prison, his sister Angela is still trying to scrape the money together to get there, and his aunt believes Ed is guilty and wants nothing to do with him. Joe is 17, alone, and in a strange place with no money and we follow him as he tries to get by, and tries to get to know his brother again, in the worst circumstances possible.

First of all, I want to point out that when I say Moonrise isn’t my favourite Sarah Crossan book, it’s not really the book that’s the problem. My copy from Netgalley wasn’t formatted correctly, and told me it was only 50% through the book when it was actually at the end, so the ending seemed really sudden, and I know that’s coloured my perception of it. I was expecting another couple of hundred pages (although I don’t know what I thought was going to happen in them!), and then it just seemed to stop, which was disappointing. So that is absolutely nothing to do with the book, which is as beautifully written as any of Sarah’s works.

There’s a real sense of longing throughout the book. (Longing’s not quite the right word, but it gives you the gist.) Joe desperately wants Ed off Death Row and out of prison. He desperately wants the rest of his family to join him, so he’s not alone in Texas. He desperately wants to get to know Nell, a girl who lives in the small town he’s found himself in, better. He’s a 17 year old boy on his own with no money, and he hates it, and I thought this came across really well in the book. The present is interspersed with flashbacks to Joe’s childhood with Ed, and through these we also get to know him, and Angela and their Aunt Karen. The characterisation of all these people is wonderful and I really did feel like I knew them all by the end of the book.

Moonrise is not just about this family though. It’s also a condemnation of the death penalty and the circus that surrounds an execution. Sarah Crossan doesn’t pull any punches in examining the process and the effect it has on everyone involved, including the prison staff and the people who live in a town that essentially only exists because of the prison. I found it an interesting point of view to take, and I certainly feel like I have a better understanding of the system in the US.

I definitely recommend Moonrise to everyone. It’s a beautifully written, coming of age verse novel that packs a powerful punch and it’s out tomorrow, 7th September, in the UK.

Moonrise is the story of Joe Moon who moves to Texas to be near his brother Ed; Ed is on Death Row, convicted of a crime he admitted to but claims he did not commit. Ed has just received notice of his execution date. We spend most of the book wondering if Ed is guilty or not, but that's not the point with this story, his guilt or otherwise is a background element in a story about the process of Death Row, waiting to die, and the impact that it has on all those affected by it. The little details Sarah adds about the process make the story chilling: moving to the last cell to be nearer the chamber, the letter to the family to remind them to make arrangements for the body to be removed, even as there is still hope of an 11th hour stay of execution.
What I loved most about Moonrise was that it addressed the story from the perspectives of everyone, not just the convict and his family, the guards at the prison, their families and the people in the town around the prison. We see how people treat the family of the convicted, and although they have done nothing wrong, there is a sense of Joe and Angela being convicted too: they have to suffer along with Ed.
Moonrise also looks at the relationship between the guards and prisoners, which at times is almost friendly. We discover a lot about the prison warden and his feelings and beliefs. There is a real sense that people there are just doing their job, and unlike any other story I have read on this subject, you really do feel for the prison staff as much as the prisoners and their family. Sarah writes a lot about the unfairness of the system: other prisoners have been there longer but have not had their dates, people have been convicted of more severe crimes and received lesser sentences. There are comments on botched executions and the exorbitant cost "It costs around four million dollars to go through with an execution. that's eight times more money than to imprison someone for life".
Angela is a particlarly admirable character, showing such bravery in how she handles the situation. Their aunt, Karen, was the most interesting character for me. She is a background character for most of the story but we see the influence that she has had on the family, looking after them when their mother leaves, and there are gestures that she truly does care whilst she appears to be keeping her distance.
The story is as emotional as you would expect it to be given the subject matter, and Sarah writes about the subject beautifully. The chapters are quite short, keeping a fast pace to the novel. Sarah switches between the past and the present, which gives the reader some background to the family as well as a let-up in what would otherwise be relentlessly sad. There is an excellent twist; I did guess it, but it still had a big impact when it came and it adds a further dimension to the novel.
I am not a crier, but I think this would be a tear-jerker for most. It hurt my heart and I am still thinking about it long after I put it down.

As someone from the UK, I've always had this weird fascination with death row. It's something that is so different to my culture and happens thousands of miles away from where I live. In fact, during my secondary education this was a topic of debate in our R.E classes. To me it's never been real. No matter how many documentaries I watch, or research that I do, it has never been something that I've had to worry about or think about on a daily basis.

The book is written in prose, which I thought would be one of my biggest problems. It's a compilation of these poems which weave together so beautifully to create such a heart breaking story. They way in which Crossan has constructed this narrative works so elegantly with the issue at hand.

In film studies we looked at films about empowering woman, all of which used unconventional structures and film conventions to make the statement more evident and powerful. If someone were to make it a film that fits into the conventions of mainstream Hollywood, but is about feminism/inequality it would not give the issue any meaning nor empower it. In order to make the statement heard it needs to be done in an unconventional way. Hopefully that makes sense.

But that's exactly what Crossan is doing by writing in prose. Whether intentional or not, it's giving the story more power than if it were the conventional type. The prose truly highlights the pain and hurt throughout the whole 400 pages. As I've said before, I do not read prose, and thought it would hinder the narrative. In fact, I was wrong. So wrong. Upon finishing the book I realised that if it were written in the more conventional way it wouldn't be anywhere near as hard-hitting. The way that Sarah uses blank space of the page to express pauses at difficult times, you can hear the characters choking on their words and in their minds. Honestly, I have no idea how to explain this because it is more of an experience.

At only 400 pages, and only a few hours reading time; I can guarantee this will be a story that will stick with you for a long time. It's one that during random intervals in your life you will think back on and just reflect. It will have an everlasting effect - that's for sure, and I knew that within the first few pages.

If I could describe it in one word, it would be beautiful. It's not one that sugar coats anything, which I very much appreciate. For example, the gardener says how there will be a crowd one day protesting for someone to be released, but then they will forget about that person the next day. Instead the problems of this system are highlighted, and as a young adult book it is a reminder that we are the future, we have the power to change this. 

Reflecting back on this book and diving deeper than the pages is a bitter truth. The book which Sarah has written is fiction, Ed is just a character, but we have all heard stories about people being murdered in this way and later being found innocent. No matter how far away or different our cultures are to America - we have all heard these stories. Time and time again. But being truthful? It's not just a young adult book. It's for anyone. It's the message - not the age of the protagonist, or the love interest - but the message and pain that you feel knowing that things like Ed's story do happen. Ed is just a character, but his story has been lived out a hundred times.

My only nag? At first the love interest (Nell) felt a lot like a John Green character that the protagonist is in love with because omg she's so alternative. As the story progressed it became more Nell related at times when I wanted more Ed. I'm undecided about the character of Nell, but it's not a giant issue. It really doesn't affect the message in any way. I would still re-read it a hundred times.

 

Overall?

I am someone who occasionally needs deep conversations about the universe and the world we live in at 3am. This is something that will definitely help create conversations between anyone and everyone.

It's stunning. I would recommend to all. It would be a perfect gift for those who either like deep topics, or even those who are just a little bit into reading. I am actually struggling trying to express how well done it was. It's obvious that it wasn't just written, but instead it was crafted. 

**Under my notes I had actually wrote 4.5. I then crossed that out and wrote, "Fuck it, 5 stars." **

I am a real fan of Sarah Crossan’s work. I read and reviewed One and We Come Apart (co-written with Brian Conaghan) this year and they both blew me away. Needless to say, I was very excited when I heard that Sarah had a new book coming out this autumn.

Moonrise tells the story of Joe, whose older brother is on death row for a murder he was found guilty of when he was only a teen. It flicks back and forth in time and we see their childhood together, as well as Joe visiting Ed in prison in the lead up to his execution date.

Written in verse, it is incredible how much emotion Sarah Crossan can convey in so few words. Tackling an incredibly important topic, she weaves an exploration of political and ethical issues into a story of family, hope and despair: “It costs around four million dollars to go through with an execution. That’s eight times more money than to imprison someone for life. Not that anyone gives a damn: killing is worth every cent.”

I found it particularly interesting to see how the death penalty affects the staff who have to carry it out as part of their job and how the local area is dependent on the prison for employment and money brought in by those visiting.

This book is heartbreaking from the first pages through to the very end. Whilst it didn’t have quite as much of an impact on me as the ending of We Come Apart, Joe and Ed’s story will stay with me for a long time. I am certain this will be another well-deserved prize winner for Sarah Crossan.

Crossan does it again...has me crying at the story, caring deeply for someone who I know is a fictional character and desperate to change events such as this.
Joe's story of the final weeks of his brother's life is hard to read but really powerful.

A huge thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury children's Books for always approving me to Sarah Crossan books. I have to admit, poetry in any form isn't my style. I usually get bored quite fast with it. But Crossan manages to keep my attention. Already her last publication had me swooning. This one wasn't worse in any way, but I just read "The hate you give" before and the repetitive topic got annoying to me. Not the books fault! I actually started wishing I had read this one firstly, I would have enjoyed it tremendously.
The book follows Joe Moon, as he needs to visites his brother before that ones execution in a month time.
Crossan delivers the sadness, helplesness and injustice so well. This is a wonderful book. A book that will stay with you and haunt you, it will make you consider the impact of the death sentence on those left behind.

I am a fan of Sarah Crossan and have enjoyed all of her books.. I heard her talk about this one at the Hay Festival and so was very happy to receive a copy.

It was interesting to hear about the viewpoint of Joe - Ed's brother who is on death row with an execution date. Ed appears to be the victim of a miscarriage of justice but his victim was a policeman and justice must be seen to be done. His appeals are ignored - in one case before being received - and his execution goes ahead even though he is white.

The story looks at how his family copes, how they deal with their grief and how they say goodbye.

I appreciated the fact that the issues of justice, the death penalty and the treatment of the inmates and their families are dealt with in a honest way - it is good for teenagers to face these issues and think about them.

Sarah Crossan gets me every time. I defy anyone not to shed a tear by the end of this. Joe's older brother is on death row, accused of killing a police offer. He hasn't seen him for 10 years. But when the date of execution is set, Joe goes to Texas to spend what little time is left with his brother, and hope he can change his fate. Written in the authors signature verse, it tackles highly emotive issues and leaves you questioning your own beliefs. The characters and setting are brought to life on the page; I was thoroughly invested in Joe and his brothers fate. An emotionally charged read. I loved it.

Warning, you will need tissues for Sarah Crossan's next book! Moonrise's sparse yet beautiful free verse tells the story of Joe whose brother is on death row. It follows Ed's final weeks as well as flashbacks to their childhood, which builds up your compassion for the family.

Like many awaiting execution at the hands of the state, Ed is going through the appeal process. Initially he couldn't get a good lawyer but now that his execution date has been set, he has pro bono help. Joe travels to Texas to spend what time he can with his older brother. He's not sure if he is innocent, he's never asked, but he knows he doesn't want to lose him.

This book will make you angry about the US justice system. Coming from a country without the death penalty, death row seems incredibly cruel, not just for the convicted but for their families. Told from the brother's point of view you see the impact, not only the grief but the perception of the relatives. Joe feels like the state is murdering his brother. I strongly believe that prison should be about rehabilitation, not just punishment.

What kind of system lets a vulnerable teenager be interrogated without legal representation, by people who are emotionally connected to the victim? I didn't care if he was guilty, I just felt rage at those cops. Ed might technically be an adult at eighteen but most parents would see him as a child still, and his background should say he needs more help, not less. Should we not give people second chances?

It would be easy to hate Aunt Karen too, but I think she is doing the best she can to protect her sister's children. With their father dead and their mother a mostly absent alcoholic, Karen is the closest thing they've got to a parent. She cuts Joe and Angela off from Ed to save them pain. She is sure he is guilty and there's nothing that can be done for him, but she can help the rest of the family.

Don't let the free verse put you off, you can read Sarah's books as if they were prose. They are stunning and so very effective at stabbing you in the heart.

This one took me a while to get into. At first the characters didn't seem that likable and the story progressed really slowly. But as I got into it and it was getting closer to the execution date, it got more gripping.

I really liked Joe as a character as the novel went on. He was so faithful to Ed and seemed to really care about his family even though they didn't really seem to treat him well. He spent so much money to go to Texas and see his brother who he hadn't really seen since he was really young and so only had vague memories of. He was willing to stay in Texas even though he was barely scraping by enough to eat.

I still like the poetry-ish feel of the book, but it isn't as exciting as it was in One. It was new and unique then, but now it's a little less new. It's still cool and easy to read though.

I was so not expecting this book to be like this… Holy crap. For a book written in verse, this was pretty damn emotional!

This is the first book I’ve ever read from the author although I’ve been wanting to try them out for a while for how unique they seem to be. Well, this one was for sure unique. It was such an emotional and heavy book and I really really liked it.

I ended the book searching for more pages. I need more pages. It can’t just end like that! I need to know what happens next! But that’s the thing about this book. It talks about unfairness, hope and about life in its worst. But also, how you can find happiness in the weirdest of places.

This story is about Ed. He is in prison and now his life is hanging by a thread. The only persons that worry about him are his sister and his brother Joe, that is our main character. Life is not great for them, and now that Ed is in death row, everything seems even worse.

We see their relationship and their hopes, dreams, and fears. We see how difficult some decisions are and how important sometimes is a person’s hope and presence. And one of the things I really enjoyed seeing is a bit of life inside bars, which I thought this one to be really unique although I’ve never read any book similar to this.

We see how a life can change in just a moment and it was both horrifying and incredible.

It was such an important message and it was told in a wonderful, emotionally gripping way. I can’t explain this book better without giving too much away… I would definitely recommend it! I really enjoyed the writing and I would love to try more of the author’s books!

Desperately sad 'death row' story, told in verse, quite beautiful

Crossan is one of my few order-on-sight authors, every book she's written has been a winner, so different yet so full of emotion and heart-tugging stories.

I remember reading one review of 'One', I believe, where the reviewer said that each short chapter could be read as a poem in itself and I used that concept when reading this, and yes, they could be standalone poems, each ending with a meaningful thought, a bittersweet lesson learnt, a sad turn of phrase. So clever.

The verse structure works so well, you don't think about it after a while, it reads like any other story, but goes by so quickly, and does feel quite 'sparse' but with carefully chosen words rather than a lot of description and padding.

It's the story of Joe, now 17, who at 7 saw his brother taken away to Death Row accused of the murder of a policeman. Now, his execution date looms and Ed has asked him to come spend his last days with him. Joe is so empathetic, I loved the flitting back and forth from his childhood memories to his current painful situation, and how he comes to reassess his big brother and what happened on the night of the murder.

So so moving, this is very likely to follow its predecessors and be nominated/shortlisted for a Carnegie. It's also a very pertinent topic for classroom/book club discussion, and would work well as central to debates on the death penalty.

One for ages 13 and above.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance e-copy.

Sarah Crossan's <i>Moonrise</i> is one of those books that, when I realise that I have 50 pages left to read, I just KNOW I'm going to be an emotional WRECK by the end...

In all seriousness though, <i>Moonrise</i> is stunning. As usual, Sarah Crossan has created something truly special. Her characters are heartbreakingly human and she teaches us to hope even when we believe hope to be impossible. And that no matter how much or how well we prepare ourselves for pain, it still punches us in the gut and leaves us gasping. But we survive.

A five star read that I will recommend to everyone.

'They think I hurt someone.
But I didn't. You hear?
Coz people are gonna be telling you
all kinds of lies.
I need you to know the truth.'

Oh my god. Sarah Crossan has hit it out of the ballpark yet again with this beautiful story of Joe Moon who travels to Texas from New York to see his older brother, Ed, who is on Death Row. But it's also a book about love in all its forms, and about life and injustice and hope in hopeless situations.

I don't know how she does it, because I am agressively opposed to free verse poetry (in fact, if I'm honest, I hate all poetry) but her words are just so beautiful and readable and her characters are so real and complex and vulnerable, I literally can't get enough of this author's writing.

There is romance in the book, but it complements the main story instead of overshadowing it or seeming to be included for the sake of it.

While Moonrise is a criticism of police brutality and of capital punishment, but it never goes overboard with condemnation. This bookshould be required reading for everyone (*coughs* Daily Mail *coughs*) who has ever said 'Bring back hanging'. Crossan pitches her arguments perfectly for maximum effect using exactly the right words to leave you feeling like you've been put through the emotional wringer and stillbegging for more. I read Moonrise in one heartbreaking sitting and two weeks later I'm still thinking about it.

I can smell a Carnegie Medal in the air. Just saying.

Initially, when I started Moonrise, I wasn't sure that I was going to engage with the character of Joe. The writing, in free verse, is superbly evocative, both sparse and elegant, and it sucked me in. The storyline of younger brother Joe who goes to Texas to be near his brother on death row was always set to be heartbreaking...and despite my initial reluctance to warm to Joe, I was a sobbing wreck by the end.

A very emotional and intense read.

Moonrise by Sarah Crossan was an amazing story to read. I knew it would be. I've loved everything by Crossan that I've read so far and there's just something about her verse novels that resonate with me on such a personal level. Something about the way she writes and puts words together really manages to shred away at my heart.

Moonrise is the story of brothers, Ed and Joe Moon. Only Joe hasn't seen his brother in years, not since he left in his aunt's car and got arrested. He's now on death row in Texas and Moonrise is a heart-breaking look at how Ed's life and death will be remembered. It's a book about saying goodbye.

There is such tenderness in Sarah Crossan's writing style. Even when the subject matter is a dusty prison and being on death row. So even when my heart was cracking open and I felt myself close to sobbing and railing at the unfairness of the world and the justice system that has failed Ed and his family ...I was also deeply aware of the beauty of this bond between brothers and the fragility of life. I loved going over Joe's memories of growing up with Ed as a big brother, seeing the ways in which his mother and sister and aunt reacts to the news of Ed's arrest. I even enjoyed Joe's uncertainty of Ed's innocence.

I find this book is really hard to discuss in any meaningful way. Because it's about so much. About remembering the small stuff, the moments between family. It was also about forgiveness and facing about to life and death and finding meaning and beauty amongst it all. Moonrise was a truly emotional story for me and I very highly recommend it.

'Moonrise' was truly excellent from start to finish. I couldn't put it down and I loved every page. The characters were well-drawn and distinctive people, each with concrete and believable backstories and motivation.

The story follows the main character, Joe Moon, as he travels to Texas to visit his brother Ed, who is awaiting execution on death row. The story flits between now and their childhood, where the story fluctuates between darkness and light effortlessly and skillfully.

This novel was fantastic. Highly recommended.

Another stand-out from the always brilliant Sarah Crossan. Beautiful, lyrical and left me with a tear in my eye.