Book Review: "Long Bright River" By Liz Moore

Two sisters. Similar streets. Totally different and gripping backgrounds!

WOW!!!

Folks, this one blew my 'favorite Barnes and Noble reading socks' right off my feet! Seriously?? I didn't just read that?? OMG!

It's an emotional tear jerker with a 'life of hard knox' and 'drug addiction.'

What's the end result if you don't fight for the one you love? Could you turn your back on a family member suffering from such an illness like drug addiction if they continued on the same destructive life cycle?

Look it here- Mickey ended up doing the brunt of the work in keeping this family tight knit and close to the sleeve. She raised Thomas (Sis Kacey's son) when Kacey was unable too be a hands on parent.

If this doesn't take the heart strings try this on for size as we learn that there's this man Simon whose involved with both these ladies in different ways that prove a challenge.

Now, Kacey isn't just wallowing here because she's also dealing with issues deemed delusional and hurtful.

Their own mom was a drug addict and their bio father left the girls to drink his life away.

Not quite the humble abode.

Children learn from their parents and if that structure is absent they must find alternatives. The alternatives her may just prove deadly.

Luckily, there are those who still believe in supportive structures, tough love, empathy, compassion, and never surrendering to the unknown abyss of the dark side.

Could an undercover police officer also be part of this vicious cycle in keeping the drugs flowing freely within arms reach?

Well, allow me a second to diverge into personal territory: Nearly 20 yrs ago I witnessed more than I care to recollect in the NICU when my own son fought for every breath. 

My son was born with vater syndrome a skeletal abnormality from a genetic chromosomal mutation and was life flighted to a nearby children's hospital. He spent two months there and I witnessed things that no parent should ever experience in a lifetime.

My own son would go code blue because he had esophageal atresia and would aspirate on his own mucus resulting in a fused esophagus among many other things. He was born to parents who did everything right w/o drugs & alcohol.

However, while in the hospital I noticed other newborns suffering from the debilitating drug addictions & further discussions with my mom a retired RN/OBGYN would only confirm the horror of the newborns struggles.

They were almost unconsolable in their pleas...yet the nurses and doctors worked around the clock to console as best they could. I can recall those stories of shaking and trembling from the counteracting drugs ie. Methadone that they would require to take them down from the drug high.

The heartbreak to witness personally any newborn lose a life is something I will never forget! I pray you never witness such but I have and it's awful to see a newborn covered over with a blanket and the parents taken to another room in NICU while your very own continues to fight for life.

I pray everyday for those lost souls and I can't tell you why the baby died in the NICU that day but I pray he/she was comforted knowing the higher powers welcomed his/her soul.

This book as you can tell near this latter section truly shook me up as I'm a parent of three children now all teens all graduating next year. My eldest from 2 yr college, my 2nd from high school, my 3rd from elementary to move up to high school.

Children are a blessing and to have almost died in childbirth multiple times is not how I thought my own story would go but they were all high risk and each of them lucky to be alive. I myself had to have emergency section and have had multiple major health issues since this time.

Count your blessings as this story could be anyone's story.

I've read other reviews in which they felt torn from hearing the interactions between these sisters and the family members.

It's a life of hard knocks that many of us have lived; myself included, and though it may never end it's a life worth living regardless of the struggles.

That ending in this story was a powerful reminder of overcoming those obstacles and never giving up.

Highly recommend reading this amazing piece of work.