Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

from goodreads

4 stars

This is a beautiful story. I enjoyed reading it, yet, it is not a story that will stick with me forever. Have you read book like that? While you are reading it you enjoy it so much, and then later, you try to recall the story it is gone or the details aren't as clear.

Synopsis

In this story we meet a young girl named Abilene. She and her father were drifters, jumping one train after another. One summer her father sends her to the town of Manifest, where she is to live with a man named Shady. When she discovers a box with someones keepsakes, hidden beneath the floor boards, Abilene ends up on a quest to discover who the mementos belong to and in the end discovers where she belongs as well.

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were easy to picture, though some of the secondary characters were not as fleshed out as they could have been.

Even though the book skipped between two time lines, it was not confusing. It was always clear what timeline was what and the transitions flowed seamlessly. That is so essential for a multi-time line book and the author did a fantastic job of it.

There were times when the story sort of lagged and I wanted to skip ahead, but on the whole I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think we all need a town like Manifest to return to, a place where everyone knows your name and accepts your part in it. It is timeless and full of what Abilene would call "universals". Although it is labelled as a young adult audience book, it would be enjoyed by those of a more mature audience as well.