The Half Moon is a slow, character driven novel about Malcolm Gephardt. Malcolm now owns the bar he has worked at for over two decades. His marriage to Jess hit the rocks over the last few  years, and seventeen weeks ago she moved out. The bar, The Half Moon, is not doing well and a blizzard is coming in. 

Keane slowly reveals the story of how Malcolm and Jess came together and apart. At first her style of transitioning to flashbacks can be jarring and hard to follow, but I did adapt and found it lovely- similar in the way that our minds go to past events while we are very much in the present. 

Ultimately, for a character driven novel I need to feel connection to at least one character and that didn't happen for me in this book. I found myself comparing it to We are the Brennans, which is also set around a family owned bar down on its luck and several struggling relationships. Last, I felt the exploration of infertility was a bit incomplete, but I did appreciate reading about it from the perspective of a male identifying person. That's not typically the perspective we hear from around struggling to have a child. 

I have no major criticisms but also nothing I really loved. Just a middle of the road book.