The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

A daughter’s breaking point ignites a 24-hour reckoning with the suffocating weight of family duty and buried trauma.

Helen Knightly has just killed her mother. After decades spent tethered to her mother’s suffocating demands and mental decline, Helen finally snaps. The Almost Moon follows the frantic twenty-four hours after the act as Helen attempts to navigate the fallout while unraveling the lifetime of resentment that led her to this moment. As she reaches out to her ex-husband and adult children, the boundaries between love, duty, and madness dissolve. Alice Sebold delivers a brutal look at the breaking point of a caregiver and the toxic bonds of family.