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Review

Megan Reynolds is in store for some significant changes—some she instigated herself, and others of which she is completely unaware. When her job with the Siegel Foundation in Northern California loses funding, she returns to her mother in Cathedral Beach only to be reminded of why she left in the first place. Years ago, when her father walked out on her mother, she and her brother, Cameron, became the intimate siblings they are today. A brief reunion with Cameron, who is now a flight attendant on a luxury airline, unnerves Megan just before he departs on a flight destined for Hong Kong. Her cousin Lucas comes to her financial rescue, as usual, and offers her an office space for new endeavors, but a mysterious phone call he receives leaves Megan, once again, reeling with uncertainty. When news of Cameron’s suspected involvement with a terrorist explosion in a Hong Kong hotel is released, Megan’s mother loses control of herself and Lucas ostensibly takes charge of the situation. Megan begins to piece together what little she can about Cameron’s disappearance after the incident, leading her to become suspicious of Lucas’ actions and eventually flees to Asia in search of her brother. There she meets Aabid, a self-centered teenager obsessed with Cameron and his piercing eyes, whose revealing antidote of when he and Cameron visited Phuket’s Red Light District reveals the true circumstances surround the bombing and Cameron’s disappearance. It is now up to them to find Cameron whilst coming to terms with their family’s dark secrets.

Christopher Rice’s psychological thriller, The Moonlit Earth, focuses on Megan as she uncovers hidden truths, whether they exist in herself, her family, or in the conspiracy surrounding them. In the beginning, she seems to be burdened by her memories and is eventually forced to use everything she has to expose the reality of the hotel bombing and Cameron’s whereabouts. Through realizations about her parents, Cameron, and Lucas, she is finally able to leave the past behind and develops a new outlook on life. “And of course, she would see the world differently, but the world would remain vast, far more vast than her consciousness, than her memories, and for the first time in her life, she would have to find comfort in this, or else the horrible things she had seen would imprison her.” Rice captures the intrinsic human ability of adaptation and self-development that rears its head in the toughest of times, optimistically declaring hardship a necessity for this personal growth.

 -- Jayson Bucy