Like Moonlight At Low Tide

The relationship I had dreamed of since I was thirteen years old, had, for a brief moment, shot into my life exactly as I had planned it. And I discovered that getting everything you always wanted still isn’t enough.

Book: Like Moonlight at Low Tide: Sometimes the Current Is the Only Thing that Saves You by Nicole Quigley, Zondervan Publishers, 2012

 

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Target Audience: Girls 13-18

Subjects: Suicide, Drugs, Dating Relationships, Friendship, Salvation

Summary: Yanked back and forth, from here to there as her mom follows her latest boyfriend, Missy is used to a hard life. She doesn’t even know who her dad is. Her mom isn’t much of a mother figure and the boyfriends she brings home certainly aren’t there to be parents to the kids. When they return to the island where she grew up though, things are even harder. This is where kids knew the worst about her. This is where Missy became “Messy” – the unpopular girl who dared to look at the most popular boy in school with attraction in her gaze, an unforgivable sin in the eyes of the popular crowd. But things are different now. She’s grown up. And she’s grown pretty – pretty enough to catch the eye of that popular boy. Soon she has what she thinks is everything she wanted. But all it takes is one tragedy to show her how wrong she was. The boy next door seems to think he has answers, but how can he? How could anyone? There’s no changing what happened. It’s permanent. How can anyone claim a reason for hope?

Notes: This is the story of a girl from a broken home who has learned to view herself as totally worthless. She thinks worth and value is defined in popular kids paying attention to her. So when she gets it, she assumes herself to be valuable, but then realizes it doesn’t fulfill her after all once her brother commits suicide. The boy next door patiently, slowly speaks truth into her life and brings her to Church with him. Caught on the water in a hurricane, Missy finally sees what Josh has been talking about and finds the peace she is so desperate for. This story does a good job realistically portraying how the kind of situation Missy is in, leads to her incorrect views about life and God and herself. It also does a beautiful job showing the power of salvation to change a life. 

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Philippians 4:7 - And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.