Cover Image: I Am Margaret Moore

I Am Margaret Moore

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Member Reviews

I did not enjoy the writing style of this at all. It was difficult to follow. It was very lyrical but not at the same time. I also didn't like the random jumps in timelines. The story overall was hard to follow imo.

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I have a lot of thoughts about this one (when don't I?), so here we go!

I think the bill is going to split on this book. Either people are going to absolutely love it or they're going to hate it and I do think there will be a small margin of people (like myself) who were somewhere in the middle, but see the value in a novel like this, so rated it a little bit higher.

People who will love this novel: love a good trail of breadcrumbs, are fine with plot sometimes being sacrificed for prose, can identify and appreciate the use (maybe overuse?) of anaphora, can stomach dark material, loved We Were Liars, and champion a strong, feminist theme.

I'm giving this four overall because I think the story is important. There were things I didn't love-- like the long, dream-like sequences where the author completely forgot about the plot and turned the book into one long extended metaphor. I also think it treaded way too close to We Were Liars for my own comfort. Not just in overall plot, but in style, too. The writing is fantastic, but I feel like it lacked it's own voice. I still liked it enough to give it a 4/5, and I'd recommend it. I'd just caution people that it certainly isn't going to be universally beloved, but sometimes I think that's what makes good literature. It gives us a lot to discuss. This one would definitely fall comfortably in what I'd consider strong YA literature.

I received an ARC courtesy of @netgalley in exchange for my honest review!

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Very flowery and lyrical writing! I enjoyed the voice of this novel and the things it’s trying to say a lot! I do feel that the flowery writing at times made it hard to ground my head in the story, but overall really enjoyed listening to this YA thriller from Hannah Capin! 3.75 Stars!

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3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.
First off, I would like to thank Netgalley and Wednesday Books St. Martin’s Press for the eARC of this novel. Hannah Capin wrote a beautiful novel, but I didn’t quite like the format. I feel that this may have been due to the fact that I was reading this virtually rather than in a physical book, and Capin’s poetical and repetitive writing style was hard to follow in the electronic format.
While I found the story hard to follow at times, I still liked the overall plot, the friendships between Margaret and her three best friends, and the paranormal aspect to the naval summer camp. Even though I struggled at times to understand what was going on, I still could not put this book down. This was the first book by Capin that I’ve read, and I look forward to checking out her other work.
*If you liked We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, you would probably like I Am Margaret Moore! Like We Were Liars, this novel has you as confused as the main character is until finally the truth is revealed.

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I always give my honest opinion and feedback on books I review, and this one is no different. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as I hoped I would. I found the book to just ramble and ramble, and frankly at times it was hard to figure out what was happening.
The book follows Margaret (Mar) Moore, and it incorporates her 3 best friends, Nisreen, Flor, and Rose. These are the "Deck Five Girls" at the military camp that the girls have all attended together since they were in elementary school. They are as close as can be, but there is a horrible secret that Mar has been withholding from them since the summer before. The secret is beginning to tear her up inside, and she knows she needs to let her girls in, and tell them what happened so they can help her to make sure justice is served.

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Hannah Capin has been one of my favorite young adult authors for a few years now and this is another excellent book rich with storytelling and loveable characters. Very much looking forward to recommending this to my students.

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2.5 stars

DNF 40%

I really struggle with this book so I requested the audiobook to see if that helped.

Unfortunately it didn't

even though I like lyrical writing style, for some reason this writing style wasn't for me.

Also, I'm not a huge fan of alternative timelines. It takes a lot of skills to make it flow well for me. It really didn't help me immerse in the experience. I was confused and couldn't connect.

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Summers at Marshall Naval School is one of precision and order. For the girls of Deck five it is about routine and tradition until girls go missing and a boy is dead.
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They say it’s because of Margaret Moore. Can she save them all or swallow them whole?
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A haunting tale with a dark atmosphere this was beautifully written. Thank you @wednesday books for an advanced copy.

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I was intrigued by the description of the book, I Am Margaret Moore, by Hannah Capin and was excited to delve into it. I have not read anything else by Hannah Capin and was a little put off by her writing style, but pushed through because I was anticipating a great story, which I never really found. The way the story was divided & the jumping around in the timeline was difficult to follow and by about halfway through, I really did not care about any of the characters or their story.

It seems like there is a wide range of reviews on this book, so maybe I was not the right reader and others will get much more out of this book.

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I read some spoilery reviews, mostly to see what the paranormal aspect of the book was. I wasn’t really impressed by it and showed me I was right not to carry on. I chose not to finish early on since I wasn’t able to get into the verse style of writing. I’m totally fine with a book in verse, I just couldn’t get into this one.

Another reason was definitely the characters. I didn’t like Margaret at all. Found her boring as anything. Her friends were a bit more interesting but once again, not enough to keep me reading.

I was annoyed by the fact that we barely see any hint of any type of paranormal activity and I checked the reviews and some said it only appears quite far into the book and even then barely. Quite disappointing.

While I did like the lyrical parts and it could be soothing at times, it could also be a bit boring. The book felt like it was pushing the naval camp as this elite thing and that was also very boring for me.

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I am Margaret Moore is a young adult paranormal thriller. The story follows four girls Margaret, Rose, Flor and Nisreen and one summer that forced the girls to come together.

I drug this book out for a long time just because I honestly just struggled getting into it. The chapters were short and choppy and the longer the story went on the more repetitive the storyline became. The book was confusing but I believe that was intentional to hiding the major reveal towards the end of the book.

The ending was fine - it delivered the revenge I was hoping for but overall I just struggled trying to get into this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hannah Capin for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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Very bizarre book & difficult to follow & finish. Just strange & not engaging at all in my opinion. Hard to finish this one.

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When I got the email from NetGalley that I Am Margaret Moore was available to “Read Now,” I jumped on it. I had this book on my TBR since I saw that Hannah Capin was publishing it. I had loved Foul is Fair and had high expectations for this book. Well, I Am Margaret Moore fell short of my high expectations.

I Am Margaret Moore is the story of Margaret and her friends. The summer before, Margaret was involved in a scandal with another camper and was sent away. This summer, she was going to move past the drama and enjoy her summer. But things don’t go the way she wants. Her friends want the truth about what happened last summer, and Margaret isn’t telling them. Because if she tells the truth, she’s afraid no one will believe her. What happened that night?

I will be very blunt; I wasn’t a fan of how the author wrote this book. There are no chapters. Instead, once a scene ended, some headers separated them (example: The Girls with paragraphs describing Margaret’s friends). I get why the author chose to write the book she did, but I like cut-and-dry chapters.

The flow of I Am Margaret Moore was choppy, and the timeline jumped around a lot. I couldn’t tell if I was in the past or present. Again, I get why the author did this, but for me, it didn’t work.

I wasn’t too sure about how I felt about Margaret. During the first half of the book, I couldn’t connect with her at all. But, by the second half of the book, I did start to like and pity her. Yes, pity. She had so much happened to her in a short amount of time.

Margaret’s friends were the true backbone of the book. They were determined to find out what happened to Margaret. That led to disciplinary action from the naval school, but that didn’t deter them.

There are a couple of twists in the plot that I saw coming. I guessed the first one right away, and once certain events happened in the second half of the book, I figured that out too.

I wasn’t a fan of the end of I Am Margaret Moore. Again, it was choppy, with events playing out of order—the choppiness and the fact that the HEA seemed thrown on as an afterthought.

I would recommend I Am Margaret Moore to anyone over the age of 16. There is implied sex, some kissing scenes, mild language, and mild violence.

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I went into I Am Margaret Moore with high hopes and expectations. But unfortunately, I was not the right reader for this book. It's written in almost a stream of consciousness style from Margaret's POV and constantly shifts time periods without many indicators. I struggle with this writing style at the best of times and for this book it resulted in a really disjoined reading experience for me. When I was able to get past the style, the messages at the story's core resonated with me: the bonds of friendship, the way women are used and silenced and how sexuality is treated by society and in this case a very traditionally patriarchal industry (the Navy).

While this book wasn't a fit for me, I really enjoyed Capin's Foul is Fair and will definitely read her future work and encourage others to do so as well.

Thank you to Wednesday Books, St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ecopy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Expected pub: 15 Mar 2022

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Title: I Am Margaret Moore
Author: Hannah Capin
Genre: YA
Rating: 3.0 out of 5

I am a girl. I am a monster, too.

Each summer the girls of Deck Five come back to Marshall Naval School. They sail on jewel-blue waters; they march on green drill-fields; they earn sunburns and honors. They push until they break apart and heal again, stronger.

Each summer Margaret and Rose and Flor and Nisreen come back to the place where they are girls, safe away from the world: sisters bound by something more than blood.

But this summer everything has changed. Girls are missing and a boy is dead. It’s because of Margaret Moore, the boys say. It’s because of what happened that night in the storm.

Margaret’s friends vanish one by one, swallowed up into the lies she has told about what happened between her and a boy with the world at his feet. Can she unravel the secrets of this summer and last, or will she be pulled under by the place she once called home?

This book just didn’t work for me. I found it very disjointed and confusing. I figured out the twist—if you can call it that—pretty early on, but that didn’t make the confusion any less chaotic. I also wish I’d known when the girls were at the school, as that might have made it slightly less confusing.

Hannah Capin lives in Virginia. I Am Margaret Moore, is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

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Every summer Margaret and her friends, Rose, Flor and Nisreen return to Marshall Naval School. They spend their summer together in their own Neverland…away from all the worries of the world. Everything changes when Margaret meets a boy and their perfect summer slowly falls apart.

So I’m a little bummed that I did not enjoy this book more. To be honest the cover is what caught my attention and when I read the synopsis…it made me super interested in reading this book. *Sigh* however it didn’t really live up to what I expected. The book is written in this very beautiful kind of poetic style which gives the whole book this haunting feel. However that it also kind of its downfall because it honestly took me forever to understand what was going on. The book also jumps timelines, which kind of added to the confusion. There was a brief moment in the middle of the book were it made sense but for a good 60% I was kind of confused. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if it was different writing style. It just really stinks that I didn’t enjoy it more.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the advanced digital copy!

*I received a advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

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Unfortunately, I am Margaret Moore wasn't for me.

Things I liked: The naval school/summer getaway setting (reminded me of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart and Where Secrets Lie by Eva V. Gibson), the girls' friendships, the overall spooky vibe

Things I didn't like: The writing style made the story feel disorganized. It was hard to lose myself in the plot--instead, I just felt lost and confused. It felt like a lot of words with not a lot of substance.

I would love to see a re-write of this novel in more modern, straightforward prose, but as it stands, I would hesitate to recommend it to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advance review copy of this book.

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beautiful writing but very confusing, justice, revenge, what happens to girls and what girls do. better in concept than in actuality

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Summer camp and teenage girls are like catnip to me and I enjoyed this one. It was atmospheric and unexpectedly spooky. A big storm, girls missing, a boy is dead---it all added up to a lively plot that kept me turning the page.

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I Am Margaret Moore is written in beautiful, flowing, poetic language, but was not enjoyable for me, as I found myself reading to understand instead of enjoyment. I can’t even tell you exactly what happened with the story, because I found myself confused after finishing it. I think a girl fell in love with a boy, got pregnant, and he murdered her. I think her friends then killed him, but I’m not sure what is dreamed or imagined. This was not for me.

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