The Moon Always Rising by Alice C. Early - 3⭐

Alice C. Early takes us into the very heart of the Caribbean with her debut, The Moon Always Rising. Her protagonist, Eleanor “Els” Gordon has taken a beating emotionally and professionally. After the loss of her fiancé, her beloved nanny, her beloved father, and a falling out with fellow colleagues at her banking job, Els, who hails from Scotland, decides to escape from her life and flies off to the island of Nevis in the Caribbean.

Hoping for a new start, Els decides to make Nevis her new home. An old abandoned house said to be possessed by what the Caribbean people refer to as a jumbie (a being somewhat like a zombie, but really more like a ghost) grabs her interest and Els throws nearly all of her life savings into it. It isn’t long until Els comes face to face with Jack, the previous owner of the house, realizing the stories about his lingering spirit are, after all, true.

Contrary to expectation, Els welcomes Jack’s presence. They become an odd pair of friends who confide in each other and whose relationship is tinged with flirtatiousness. They both soon come to realize that perhaps they’ve been brought together to help each other out. Jack has unfinished business on earth which Els is able to help him with to help him pass on. While Jack does his best to challenge Els, encouraging her in his own derisive way to help her seek out the truth about her mother’s abandonment, as well as to learn to let go of the many ghosts of her past.

Early does a spectacular job of balancing magical realism while keeping the story from spinning into ludicrous territory. Els is extremely down to earth while Jack is cynical — a combination that sparks chemistry between the two main characters helping to create plausible scenarios. Early grounds the story on a set of the thoroughly well-researched island of Nevis. Having lived in the Caribbean for most of my life, I can attest to how spot-on Early’s depiction of the people, the scenes, the scents, the tastes, the sounds are. She flawlessly captures life in the Caribbean region, from the way all the people inhabiting the Caribbean archipelago are interconnected to the phonetics of the accent, right down to the constant power outages that can happen at any time of day and for no apparent reason.

Early’s narration is always well-paced and vivid, the characters all coming to life convincingly — right down to the snarky jumbie. However, there are moments where one has to stop and wonder about some of Els’ comments which can come off as shortsighted. For example, when she meets the baby of a black woman and sees that his eyes are hazel, having no idea who the father is or any further information on the baby’s genetics, she proceeds to say, “Your father must be handsome.” There are a few other instances like this, scattered throughout the book, in which the reader has to do a bit of a doubletake and wonder about Els and the author’s somewhat obtuse observations. However, there’s an author’s note at the beginning of the book where Early states she “created in Els Gordon a protagonist who is by definition an outsider. This story is told exclusively from her point of view with all the shortcomings of perception and understanding that creates.” So readers will have to come to this book with an open mind, to understand that Els might not have the insight to gauge how certain comments can be perceived as imprudent.

The book also drags on towards the end. We know what Els and Jack both need to do to find closure, and yet it’s almost as if Early is purposely dragging the story on for no reason, adding an extra bit of last-minute political island drama that doesn’t quite fit in with the overall theme of the book. After a couple of extra chapters that probably could’ve been edited down, Early gets back on track and we find, at last, the resolution to the plot.