Tuesday, April 7, 2015

The Law of Moses by Amy Harmon

Someone found him in a laundry basket at the Quick Wash, wrapped in a towel, a few hours old and close to death. They called him Baby Moses when they shared his story on the ten o’clock news. Moses is strange, exotic, beautiful, and broken.

I'm gonna start off this review by saying straight up this will be one of the hardest reviews I've ever had to write before. The Law of Moses left me feeling every emotion humanly possible. I guess I'll just start at the beginning...

First off the prologue is probably one of the best ones I've ever read. It's only a couple of pages long, but after reading it I already had to set the book down because I knew it would be an emotional read. Even with the warning crystal clear at the start I wasn't prepared for how deep this book would hit. I didn't stay away long before crashing right back into it. Amy's writing is the thing that kept drawing me back. Her writing is like no others. She writes so that the reader isn't just reading they are actually able to see everything. It makes you have to stop and close your eyes just to take it all in before you can move on to the next page. It's remarkable. Her words had me drowning and I was in no rush to get air.

"If I tell you right up front, right in the beginning that I lost him, it will be easier for you to bear. You will know it's coming, and it will hurt. It will still make your chest ache and you stomach flip with dread. But you'll know and you´ll be able to prepare . And that's my gift to you . I wasn't given that same courtesy. I wasn't prepared."

If that doesn't both pull you in and give you goosebumps I don't know what will.

As far as the characters went, they were just as stunning. Georgia is a strong willed and strong written character. I loved her love for live. I loved that she was 100%  Moses' opposite. She's the soft to his rough. I loved her boldness and the way she always kept pushing forward. Moses was my favorite character. He might actually be one of my favorite written males. Why is that? Because he is what made me so emotional. One moment I loved him, the next I wanted to punch him, and then the next he would have me in tears. This book had me crying and sometimes there was no reason other than the writing style. Moses is the definition of character development. I loved that Georgia is just a small town girl and that Moses is a mess with so much artistic talent is unreal. Georgia comes from a loving family with so much heart, and Moses was the crack baby left in a basket at a local laundry mat. Everything about how the characters clashed was flawlessly written.

The other highlight of this book was the love story. It wasn't the typical tale, and it wasn't the untypical, it was something all its own. I loved watching it grow. I loved it's highs and it's low. My favorite part of not just the story but the romance was the way Moses' art came into play. I love how it was the pretty little bow that tied everything together.

“My mom always said negative attention is better than no attention at all. She was usually talking about foster kids who acted out. But apparently it also applied to seventeen-year-old girls who were in love with boys who didn’t love them back.”

As far as the plot goes I sadly can't go too deep into it. I will say that the book is split into two halves. The first half is a lot of background and build, while the second is all the heart hitting emotional reveals. I preferred the second half to the first but with saying that I loved the first so much. The plot line surrounds the fact that Moses is able to see the dead and then paint their messages. I thought this would come off as cheesy, but it never once felt that way. Something that really brought this story to such a high level was the switch of Povs and how it was never constant. It didn't alternate between Georgia and Moses every other chapter, it only changed when needed. This might make it sound like a cluster but it was so important to how the story played out. 

That's all I can say about this book. I can't go into an events or even sub-characters. This is a book you need to go into blind. The Law of Moses wasn't at all what I thought it would be. I agree with most when they say they don't know what genre this book would fall into. Paranormal? Contemporary? Romance? I don't know and I don't really care. It's unique theme and it's thought provoking writing won me over. The writing is captivating, the story is heart breaking, and has a love story of all its own. This was the first Amy Harmon book I've ever read, but it wont be the last. This book struck a emotional cord that I can't even explain.


10/10 Stars 
-Angela 

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