The Big Girls

“The story is told in the alternating voices of nHelen, who has long suffered terrifying schizophrenic hallucinations andn is serving a life sentence for killing her two small children; Helen’s npsychiatrist…a corrections officer…and an ambitious Hollywood star whom nHelen believes to be her sister. Moore gradually probes Helen’s npsychosis to its horrifying origins, while also delivering a nuanced andn devastating account of the fights, rapes, and alliances built from nnecessity that constitute prison life.” 

“A darkly seen and subtly realized intertwining of love and betrayal…The read is hypnotic, and the book hard to put down.”

“Mesmerizing…Moore spins an impressive, well-realized collection of voices and experiences.”

“In spare, yet hypnotic prose, Moore examines the nbond between a young psychiatrist and a mentally ill patient in her ndevastating sixth novel, set at an upstate New York federal women’s nprison…Moore deftly shifts perspective among her principal ncharacters…as the action nhurtles to an oddly satisfying resolution. Reading this heart breaker is nlike watching a train wreck while dialing for help on your cellphone. nYou can’t turn away.”

“As the narrative alternates between four npoints of view, all equally commanding, Moore blurs the lines between ncriminals and their jailers, emphasizing their common humanity…Moore never shies away from the dark crimes nat the center of the narrative, but she brings electrifying prose and a nrichly compassionate viewpoint to her meditation on both the dark and nthe generous impulses at work in all of us.”