The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
The Lovely Bones is one of my FBOAT, so I was looking forward to Alice Sebold's third book, hoping for something I could recommend to a large group of readers. Sadly, The Almost Moon isn't nearly as good as The Lovely Bones, or even Lucky, her second book. I did finish it, but I didn't like Helen, the protagonist, and I spent most of the book trying to figure out what her mother had done to deserve being smothered to death. Sebold never delivers a plausible (or comprehensible) reason. Read The Lovely Bones or Lucky instead.