Long Bright River – Book Review

I’m having to play catch up again with my book reviews.I’m hoping to get back on a semi-regular posting schedule again.

Title: Long Bright River

Author: Liz Moore

Number of Pages: 482 pages

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Publication Date: January 7, 2020

Purchase: Thriftbooks//Amazon//Book Depository

My Rating: 3/5 stars

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn’t be more different. Then, one of them goes missing.

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don’t speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.

Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey’s district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit–and her sister–before it’s too late.

Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters’ childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate. (less)

My Thoughts:

I wanted to love this so much because it was high up on my priority list. I naturally gravitate to novels with sisters as the main characters or plot point. I love seeing all of the bonds that are depicted, but this fell short of my expectations.

I found the story to be painful and heartbreaking, but the characters ruined some of that. I did want this because the P.O.V. was from a cop. This novel also deals with a very real and serious issue going on in the United States, the opioid crisis. I lived in a state where this was seen on every corner and the portrayal of Philadelphia was not as jaw dropping because that is the city that is more attached to this crisis. This would have been better if I wasn’t looking for a mystery.

The characters lacked depth and I stopped caring about them. All of the characters were one dimension and I wanted to wash my hands of them very quickly once the story concluded.

So many plot details felt like they fell through the cracks because I always felt like something was missing. The mystery was decent, but it wasn’t anything special. There was no big twist that surprised or shocked me, there was not even something out of left field.

I also think that it was a little on the long side for how generalized some aspects were. This was 480 pages and it could have been cut significantly shorter. The slow burn nearly killed me in this book.

Have you read this? If so, what were your thoughts?

Let’s talk about it in the comments!