The Moonflowers: A Novel

This story captures you from the beginning. So well written that it makes a picture in your mind of all the characters in the story. Truly written to span the decades of women who saw the need for women to be sheltered and serviced in their time of need. Now will we again need this same senario as we move forward with elections coming up. So sad our highest court is taking us backward in history instead of forward with women's rights over their own bodies. Great read!

I started this book because of the murder mystery tag and because it is set in Kentucky. What I did not expect was a brilliant story highlighting the struggles of women in the past and the ones that we are currently facing yet again. This story is about brave women helping those who need it and a legacy that is created by brave women.

If you've read the one star reviews, you'll see what struggles and problems I am talking about. If you're the type to dump on this topic instantly, move on. The story and its importance will be lost on you. Don't waste your time and get your feelings hurt. But if you've read those reviews and find yourself still intrigued by the murder mystery that is interwoven in this story, the murder that centers around this beautiful story, read it. It is worth the time and the money.

This is one of the most beautifully executed pieces of work I have read in a long time. It should be on every mandatory reading list for students HS and onward and every male who’s job is in a position to make decisions regarding women and their bodies and their wellbeing and reproductive health need to have read and written their reviews on this incredibly powerful and misinformed subject and the oppression and abuse that has been allowed to continue and the neglect that’s been inflicted upon the females who bring them their life and are the nurturing and life givers and she is the one who is responsible to make the decisions if she is capable to bring a child into this world and overpopulated poorly structured institutional failure that has been blatantly ignored abused and taken their agency of their own lives by passing unintelligent fatally flawed and harmful laws and policies and punish even further the desperation they have shown by having to sought out an illegal or fatal consequence of their termination of this unintended consequence of males having selfish and oppressive policies and systemic racist policies against females the very MOTHERS who’ve sacrificed her entire life each and every time she proceeds to bring a child and life into existence hers is dangerously in perils way. Because no male could ever and will never have to know what a pregnancy full term is like and worse the LABOR and inarguably the most painful process including dying is while also putting her own fate in the fate and mercy of their own lives because ask any educated unbiased physician and they will tell you what birth and pregnancy does to the body and it isn’t as simple and dismissive as “women in other countries give birth standing up and go back to working in their fields” or “women have been doing it since beginning of time it’s what they DO” that is the wrong rheutoric and incredibly stupid for lack of a better or more explicit definition of the mentality that has become repeated and actually thought of as facts and decided by men not ever will you hear a women dismiss the process of pregnancy or the labor and birth not to mention all the other ways in which her body is not hers for rest of her life once she is responsible for this child and it’s survival. It’s emotionally physically and mentally daunting and it’s one of the most rewarding and horrifically stressful decisions she will ever make and the lifetime of that bond and her lifetime of ensuring it’s survival and wellbeing is unspoken and unacknowledged in fact it’s expected of females to be birthing children even when they have made the choice right for them not to do so knowing it isn’t in their inclination to do. The pressure and the oppression as well as the blatant disregard for her safety security and welfare after the fact is left unchecked grossly negligent practices and laws against her safety security and welfare in the future is nonexistent. She has no monetary support but that of which she is expected to raise kids full time as well as work full time and be responsible for several other humans lives and her own while supporting them all in every aspect with absolutely no help or assistance or assurance she will be able to safely shelter feed and support her kids without the dependency of their “fathers” and her retirement should be monetarily equipped to give her thanks for those years and for that life that without every single mum out there couldn’t have been possible or sustainable for the race if those men who ignore oppression and refuse to elevate the care and support and assistance of the females they have legally made responsible to give and protect that life the male has an orgasm in his contribution and somehow that is deemed fair enough to give him RIGHTS to his children and that women forever indebted financially towards him no matter how poorly he neglects or how violently he abuses her? It’s absolutely deplorable and this country and rest of the world still practicing in anarchic and antiquated practices radically need to change. This and other themes like this need to be the repeated rhetoric the information recitated and reverence for this perspective and respect and gratitude for females especially women who have brought life into the world should be shown and given the praise and security in her and her children’s lives and futures that are ensured to be protected and sustained on the monetary and assistive institutions that are made available to all women to have access to and should be legally and financially entitled to. Indentured servitude is as racist and bigoted as it is antiquated and known to be WRONG and harmful. When a society knows better they need to DO BETTER IN ORDER TO GET BETTER. Let women make their own decisions about women business you males in leadership stick to your gun laws and protections let the women do their jobs and stay in your lanes

This book was one of the best I've read in many years. Her use of adjectives & such passionate descriptive writing style is superb. This book has many unexpected twists and turns, it is predictable at times and a complete surprise at others. I would recommend it for more liberal minded people. It does tell a story that needs to be told, many people won't like it, but I believe it's honest & sad in many ways. Makes one wonder if women in particular have gained any ground in the last 80 years. Well written, I highly recommend this book. We need to step back and stop judging, life is complicated, things aren't black and white, hard decisions have to be made and that takes courage, as this book demonstrates through it's strong characters.

What a read!!! Just a beautifully woven, masterfully told, series of people’s stories told as one big, wonderful, real and enlightening tale. One honestly doesn’t feel like they’re reading a book … one feels like they’re sitting comfortably in a room and being told a family story of life in their town, by someone they love and who loves them. If one can be embraced by a book … this one can do it. Kudos to Abigail Rose-Marie.

There are so many good things to say about this novel. The characters are well defined and actually act human. What I loved the most was the way she captures the physical feelings a person can have when their intuition kicks in. The way she uses color to describe emotions is wonderful. "Her voice is deep ebony stirred too long with the tip of a paintbrush. It smears all across the room" She describes how a car feels too small to hold her anger, but a field feels large enough to absorb her emotions. The story is captivating, I had to find out what really happened! An inspiring tale about courageous women. This book is definitely in my top 5 of the last few years.

This is the best book I have read since To Kill A Mockingbird. The characters are rich and well developed. The story grabs you immediately and takes you on a journey of discovery. It's about the courageous women who ran an abortion clinic when abortion was illegal. It's about women who had no where else to go to get away from abusive husbands. It's about the courage it took for women to join together and help each other, without regard to their own safety. In the current political climate, the rights we fought hard for and won when I was a young woman are now eroding away. This story has re-lit the fire in me to stand up again and fight and march again. I will need a wheelchair to "march" now but I will join with my sisters to march again. I can not recommend this book highly enough. I believe it will become scholastic required reading in the future, when hopefully, young women will not know that women's reproductive freedom was ever restricted. I would give this book more stars if there was an option to do that because five is not enough. This is definitely a must read! And thank you to Abigail Rose-Marie for inspiring me to remember the young woman I once was and reigniting the fire in me.

This was actually a great story with well developed characters. I just grew a bit weary of the feminist theme “men are rapists and wife beaters” and the “women who help other women abort their babies and leave their families are saints”. Should a woman leave an abusive husband? Absolutely. But what kind of woman leaves her 6-year-old son behind with the abuser? This author definitely had an opinion about how wonderful it is to “help women” get rid of their bothersome babies. So, my review is - great story line but prepare to hear the glories of one side of the abortion issue. It did open my eyes to how others see this issue, I must say.