From the Moon I Watched Her


Fiction - Literary
320 Pages
Reviewed on 12/05/2020
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Author Biography

Emily English Medley, MSN, APRN, FNP-C is a debut author from Houston. She has published several short articles in local newspapers and has one magazine article to her credit. She is a member of The Writers League of Texas and The Houston Writer’s Guild.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Cecelia Hopkins for Readers' Favorite

From the Moon I Watched Her by Emily English Medley is a work of fiction that lifts the lid on evil embedded in middle-class suburban communities. The story begins with Stephanie listening to her minister grandfather leading the “no” side of a public abortion debate. Then it follows her home and describes her complicated family relationships. Although they attend church every week, the mother has mental health issues, and the father has an “inappropriate” special relationship with the older sister. After seeing her sister with two older boys, Stephanie allows the boys to take her into an empty house too...

From the Moon I Watched Her by Emily Medley cleverly presents multiple moral and spiritual points of view. I really liked the way the story was narrated from the initial perspective of ten-year-old Stephanie. What could have been explicit was subtle as her young mind presented a complicated jumble of prohibition and privilege, physical and spiritual abuse. Despite the tragedy and drama, I enjoyed the twists and turns as the family situation evolved. I was so interested that at the conclusion of the story, I scrolled through the acknowledgments and discovered the list of talking points after that. From the Moon I Watched Her by Emily Medley is a character-driven tale that incorporates aspects of suspense to create a very sophisticated story.

Dani Bowers

This book was haunting in many ways to me, personally having a parent with mental illness makes an impact on you that never truly goes away. At first, I did not think I was able to get thru the book because of the religious undertone of the book. This book is not about religion it's about survival against the odds. Having a child at the same age as Stephanie was in the book during a horrible trauma was daunting. I wanted to jump in the book and rescue her. I felt a sense of anger towards everyone around her who did nothing to help, who turned their blind eyes to her suffering. But in the same token felt sorry for a mother who could not help who she was, was powerless which ultimately is what mental illness is and does to a person. I felt sad and sorry for Stephanie's mom. I didn't connect with several characters of the book, but ultimately this story to me was about the relationship between the mother and daughter and how that shaped the girl's upbringing. I can't imagine going thru such awful things so early on and come out on the other end as a sane person. I couldn't put the book down towards the half-end of the book. I needed to know what happened and that's kudos to the author- I was hooked after the first 30 pages of the book. Will look forward to other books written by this author.