READER REVIEW

This reader gets the ethos of the Moth: " I could not help but root for The Moth."

Hard Neighborhood for an Insect, Even A Death Head Moth

Scott Archer Jones has written a dark, complex, and compelling page-turner. The Moth is gripping enough to hold this reader’s attention start to finish in one sitting. Jones’s vivid descriptions evoked visceral reactions—a mouthful of grit, skin stripped raw, the taste of blood, and the cracking of bones. In childhood and adolescence, the main character, Frank, is battered and beaten by circumstances beyond his control. As an adult he learns to survive in a brutal environment, negotiating a gritty life of poverty, crime, and entrapment. Frank trips into circumstances of those less fortunate than himself and he cannot look away. His efforts to help ultimately backfire. Empathy, and grief over his lost love, set in motion a steep slide from stealing as his only means of helping others, to negotiating with opposing factions vying for control of his neighborhood, to entrapment by a corrupt police detective. Danger escalates at every turn. Frank is caught between choices with no good outcomes. He is broken physically, emotionally, and financially. But throughout he retains his ability to think, to plan, and to wait. I could not help but root for The Moth.