OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Bittersweet Moment" by Arronda Mosley.]

Losing a loved one to cancer is a painful journey for those who have experienced it. Watching a once-vibrant soul lose its radiance as cancer treatments eat away at strength and take their toll is no easy task for those closest to the victim. Helen “Chrissy” Harris was the God-fearing mother of four children who loved them unconditionally. Her great love inspired her daughter, Arronda, to write a memoir about the power of trusting God for strength in times of great weakness.

Arronda shares a brief family history but focuses on her mother’s battle with cancer. This journey traverses the sorrow of cancer treatment and explores Arronda’s struggle with her feelings during her mother’s ordeal. In the end, it was Chrissy’s strength, dignity, and faith that helped Arronda come to peace in a bittersweet moment of clarity.

A Bittersweet Moment, by Arronda Mosley, is a short memoir that consists of 67 pages. The chapters include family photos that give the reader a glimpse into the author’s life and share the beauty of the inspirational figure that Chrissy was to her daughter. Arronda outlined the course of her mother’s last days in a straightforward manner that was brief and to the point.

The inclusion of the memories she shared with her mother would have made the story more relatable. Instead, the author wrote with a style that reminded me of a witness sharing a testimony of transpired events. Childhood memories, both good and bad, would have shown the close relationship she had with her mother. It was hard for me to experience the emotions because the author mentioned memories but did not give many details. Throughout the pages, she told of being disappointed, confused, and angry. She shared these feelings multiple times, which reiterated how much she was suffering, but she never showed the pain or revealed the inner suffering through more than flat phrases. By the end of the novella, I understood that her mother had a strong faith. She was at peace, but I never experienced a deep connection to that peace. There were no stories of the memories or flashbacks to the happier times to help me relate to the author as she outlined the facts.

There is a powerful message of putting the needs of others first and helping each other through painful times. The impacts of these messages, however, were lost through a lack of emotional connection to the story. I still believe that readers who like a straightforward narrative and prefer to have a story told rather than shown will enjoy this memoir and be impacted by the message.

As it stands, I would have given A Bittersweet Moment a 3 out of 4, but there were also numerous editing errors throughout the book. Therefore, I gave this book a 2 out of 4. The raw potential for a powerful novella exists. A few personal stories to show the profound strength of Chrissy’s faith and how the author’s anger affected her faith would help the reader relate to the pain of the path. A final round of editing would polish the edges smooth, and this little book would pack an inspirational punch. For now, I admired the author’s efforts to share her story, but I was only able to experience it on a surface level.

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A Bittersweet Moment
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Thank you for this excellent review! Hopefully the author will engage an editor to make this powerful story more relatable.

It's too bad her relationship with her mom wasn't fleshed out, it would have made for a more enjoyable reading experience. Thanks for your honest review.

Excellent review! It is a shame about the lack of connection and editing errors. Hopefully, it can be corrected! Thanks for sharing your thoughts:) Cheers

I suspect this book could have benefited from a few dozen pages of the author going in-depth on her feelings instead of describing everything on a surface level. It's certainly difficult to get your readers to emotionally connect with your tale in only 67 pages. Thanks for the helpful review though!

Strong emotions, like those created while caring for a family member, can resonate with readers, especially when the illness is terminal. I understand, though, that the author did not take enough distance from her writing so the result was not as good as the readers expected.
I suppose it was a relief instrument for her and the review is objective in pointing out ways to make it better.

That's unfortunate the author wasn't quite able to get her message across. Just from reading the review though, I can understand some of the anger and frustration the author probably felt from losing her mom to cancer. Thank you for the review.

Definitely in a book like this, emotional connection is key. It is too bad the author was too close to her own emotions to be able to write them in a way that would allow others to connect with them.

Thanks everyone for the comments and feedback!