What readers think of Moonrise Over New Jessup, plus links to write your own review.

Reading the first sentence of this novel I knew this was a beautifully written book and it did not disappoint. It was also an excellent character driven book. I bonded with Alice Young immediately. She is a young woman who has left her hometown after her remaining parent dies. She gets on a bus hoping to arrive in Chicago where she thinks her sister lives. Not having enough money for the fare her destination is Birmingham.

However before arriving there she gets off the bus at New Jessup. This is an all black town and she decides to stay. In this town the people welcome and embrace her. She has a job as a seamstress, has a small place to live and falls in love with a wonderful man. She is a strong young woman and this is a story of the love for her husband and also the courage to protect him when she finds out he and some friends are involved with something that could hurt him his friends and family, and could possibly banished them from town.

I enjoyed this book. It took place in Alabama in the 1950's, and I was happy to read about this town and the people. This will be a good book for book clubs to discuss.

Jamila Minnicks's new novel looks at the Civil Rights Movement from a different perspective. Set in an independent all-Black town in Alabama, Minnicks posits the arrival of Alice Young, a young woman fleeing an abusive white landlord in another town whose bus ticket runs out when she reaches New Jessup. Alice falls in love with and marries Raymond Chapman, who is secretly working with an "agitator" organization, while she thrives in the protective atmosphere of an all black community that she perceives as "separate but equal." The story line weighs and balances the two viewpoints and their impact on the lives of the Chapmans and other citizens of New Jessup. It's an interesting perspective, and one I've not heard or read about attached to the Black community during late 50s/early 60s Civil Rights era.

There is an assumption that a sequel will be forthcoming as the story is not complete. The story is quite compelling, especially when talking about racial inequality in the 50's. It would be nice to know how the characters' lives end up and if integration is possible or just a pipe dream. I passed the book on to someone else to see if the relevance was felt as strongly. Not too bad; again, it would have been better had it been completed.

I loved the first 25 of this book. Learning about Alice's travels to New Jessup, her backstory, etc. About the time Raymond came on the scene I started to lose interest. It felt like there were a lot of different story lines going on, but they were all disconnected from each other. The new romance with Raymond, the search for Rosie, Patience's removal, NNAS, etc. The stories were all over the place and didn't intertwine as much as I wish they would have.

I expected this book to come together with its various storylines but there seemed to be too much going on at once. The book presents the mystery of Alice's sister Rosie, the back and forth with the family's involvement with the NNAS integration vs. segregation efforts, and the Campbell family's local business relationships. There's a good amount of detail related to the various subplots but not enough depth. I read this book waiting for a big climactic resolution that never came. It's an average novel that starts off with an intriguing look at how a family and a community are impacted by the Civil Rights Era's pros and cons of segregation vs. integration but doesn't quite deliver.