The Rest of Her Life

By: Laura Moriarty

Narrated by: Julia Gibson

Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

In The Rest of Her Life, Laura Moriarty delivers a luminous, compassionate, and provocative look at how mothers and daughters with the best intentions can be blind to the harm they do to one another.

Leigh is the mother of high-achieving, popular high-school senior Kara. Their relationship is already strained for reasons Leigh does not fully understand when, in a moment of carelessness, Kara makes a mistake that ends in tragedy - the effects of which not only divide Leigh's family, but polarize the entire community. We see the story from Leigh's perspective as she grapples with the hard reality of what her daughter has done and the devastating consequences her actions have on the family of another teenage girl in town, all while struggling to protect Kara in the face of a rising public outcry.

Like the best works of Jane Hamilton, Jodi Picoult, and Alice Sebold, Laura Moriarty's The Rest of Her Life is a novel of complex moral dilemma, filled with nuanced characters and an engrossing plot that will make listeners ask themselves, "What would I do?"

©2007 Laura Moriarty (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Moriarty's honest novel about an ordinary family whose life changes in one extraordinary moment resonates like an emotional tuning fork." (Jodi Picoult)

phenomenal!

loved it ❤ was a very heartbreaking yet inspiring book. i saw myself in many of the characters

Talented author; good character drama

Would you consider the audio edition of The Rest of Her Life to be better than the print version?

Hard to say. the audio version was much more readable, if for no other reason than the book is much moreof a character-driven novel than a plot-driven one. It moseys along nicely, but can be hard to get through.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the character developemtn, how the characters themselves changed, even as their relationship changed with them.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Julia Gibson is an OK narrator; she is not my favorite because she can read very flatly on occasion. But she does a good job with the emotions in this book.

Any additional comments?

I loved Moriarty's first novel, The Center of Everything, and her most recent offering, The Chaperone; this is not as strong as either offering, but Moriarty has a wonderful knack of depicting the everydayness of her characters' lives.
A worthwhile read for her fans, but definitely not her strongest offering.

Fan of this Author

I'm a fan of Laura Moriarty & enjoyed this book. What a heart wrenching situation for both families - no one knows how they would react to the same situation & I think the author captured both these families' reactions well. I just didn't like the music interludes, but did like the story & the narrator.

You really have to be patient when reading

This was a great story with a lot of details of the past so you have to be patient and stay with it. You will see where the author is going with each character. Good book. I would recommend it to my patient and older friends who likes a good story but my young adult daughters?? Not so much. They would want everything right up front.

Obnoxious musical interludes ruin the story

The story is mildly engaging, but the truly obnoxious music played at intervals (not even clearly delineating parts of the story) absolutely ruined the experience.

I like this author

I first heard of Laura Moriarty when I read her first book "Center of Everything." I enjoyed it so much that I was glad to see her second book "The Rest of Her Life" on Audible. She is a new author and has been compared to Jodi Picault and Jane Hamilton. I really enjoyed listening to this book. It tells a story of a family that must come to grips with heart-wrenching tragedy.

Not typical of Laura Moriarty

I couldn’t get past the first three chapters. It was so negative and slow. I felt sluggish and depressed just listening to it.

Dull

I generally like this author, but this story was dull, heavily dramatized and droned on. I was relieved when it was over. No point to reading it.

Ugh!

Yuck! I am a fan of Jodi Picoult, and some literary sites recommended this book as being paralell to Picoult (for ethical and social subject matter).

I found this book to very drawn out, tedious, whiny and lacking enough plot to keep it from being so whiny and annoying. Once I got halfway into the book, I had more compassion for the self-centered main character, and could understand why the author portrayed her in that way... but the first part of the book was almost so unbearable I almost didn't make it through.

Can't say I would recommend it. Spend your credits on some Picoult instead!