ParentsPick

Half Moon Bay — Content Guide for Parents

By Alice LaPlanteSimon & SchusterISBN 9781501190902272 pages
Half Moon Bay

Found in this book

  • ViolenceSupporting
  • Scary contentCentral
  • Sexual contentBrief

Not found

  • Religion
  • Race & culture
  • Climate
  • Gender roles

Couldn't confirm

  • Profanity
  • Gender & orientation
  • Profanity: No source reports on the language in the book's own text.
  • Gender & orientation: Sources do not clearly say whether any character is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

Content themes

Factual summary of themes present in this book. No opinion — just the facts.

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Example theme card

Religion

PRESENT

Contains references to prayer and church attendance. A minister character plays a supporting role in two chapters.

About this book

“An eerie, tense, and finely written novel…Readers will grip their chairs” (SFGate.com) as they try to unravel this tale of psychological suspense from the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of Turn of Mind. Jane loses everything when her teenage daughter is killed in a senseless accident. Devastated, she manages to make one tiny stab at a new life: she moves from San Francisco to the seaside town of Half Moon Bay. Jane is inconsolable, and yet, as the months go by, she is able to cobble together some version of a job, of friends, of the possibility of peace. And then, children begin to disappear. And soon, Jane sees her own pain reflected in all the parents in the town. She wonders if she will be able to live through the aching loss, the fear all around her. And as the disappearances continue, she begins to see that what her neighbors are wondering is if it is Jane herself who has unleashed the horror of loss. Alice LaPlante’s “well-crafted novel of psychological suspense” is a chilling story about a mother haunted by her past, a “brooding suspense novel…dark, starkly beautiful…LaPlante uses a seductively dangerous landscape to mirror her heroine’s inner life” (Kirkus Reviews).

Frequently asked questions

  • Is Half Moon Bay appropriate for a 7-year-old?

    Young girls are abducted and found dead, the main character is suspected, and she thinks about drowning herself, though the killings are described only sketchily. A suspense novel in which children disappear and are killed, with a foggy, eerie atmosphere and a main character who may be unreliable.

  • Does Half Moon Bay have violence?

    Found (Supporting): Young girls are abducted and found dead, the main character is suspected, and she thinks about drowning herself, though the killings are described only sketchily.

  • Does Half Moon Bay have scary content?

    Found (Central): A suspense novel in which children disappear and are killed, with a foggy, eerie atmosphere and a main character who may be unreliable.

  • Does Half Moon Bay have religion?

    Not found in the sources we checked.

  • Does Half Moon Bay have race & culture?

    Not found in the sources we checked.

  • Does Half Moon Bay have profanity?

    Couldn't confirm: No source reports on the language in the book's own text.

  • Does Half Moon Bay have climate?

    Not found in the sources we checked.

  • Does Half Moon Bay have sexual content?

    Found (Brief): A reader review says Jane's teenage daughter was sexually active at 14 and that Jane joins a three-way relationship with a couple.

  • Does Half Moon Bay have gender roles?

    Not found in the sources we checked.

  • Does Half Moon Bay have gender & orientation?

    Couldn't confirm: Sources do not clearly say whether any character is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

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