The Moonlight Child

Another work book-club dud, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe the duddiest! This is one of those books I read and think, “This? People make money off of... this?!” And wonder if I could write my own predictable and awfully unbelievable crime drama for some extra moolah.

That is to say: the dialogue was immature and unnatural, the plot could almost certainly never happen, and everything that did happen was more or less expected. “Action” scenes were anticlimactic and I felt no sense of suspense, ever. There is no character-building, so each feels like a Sim more than a relatable person.

Quick plot synopsis:
Older woman lives alone in small house, spies on neighbors bc she's old and lonely, sees a child washing dishes late at night at her neighbor's house though she's never seen a child there before. Must be child abuse?!?!
Older woman has older child who is a lawyer and has taken in a young woman who was bounced around the foster care system as a child as... her ward? Her mentee? And convinces mother/older woman to take in this young woman when the young woman needs a place to live.
The two hit it off immediately and start calling each other grandma and granddaughter, bc the woman is so so grateful and happy and mentally stable after her years of changing families and an abusive relationship??? No trust issues at all. Amazing.
These two then conspire to figure out what is going on with the dish-washing child through stupid trickeries.
Turns out the mother at the neighbor's house is a megalomaniac perfectionist (that acts more like a Disney villain than an actual human) who took in an abandoned child she just happened to find on the side of the road one day, whom she tired of and then turned into her mini-maid. She hid her mini-made in the basement in a room she made especially for her behind a bookshelf and blackmailed her husband and teenage son into going along with the whole thing.
Blah blah blah boring things happen and a chase ensues and the little girl is rescued and returned to her grandparents and the crazy lady goes to jail and everyone lives happily ever after.

There! Now you don't need to waste any of your life reading the book.

3.5*