Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Wed Jul 06 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

This powerful debut collection is a wonderland of deep female characters navigating their lives against the ever changeable backdrop of Florida.The feminine is sublime throughout these stories, featuring girls and women who are submerged in loss, love, death, temptation, and the cruelty and benevolence of motherhood, two sides of the same coin. Each story vibrates with a thrumming undercurrent of primal power, found in both nature and in the most shadowy parts of ourselves. In "The Hearts of Our Enemies," Frankie navigates the rockiness between herself and her teenage daughter, Margot, after she tells her husband about her almost-infidelity and he moves out; then she finds a note in Margot's jeans that leads her to discover how far she will go to protect her child against an insidious predator. The title story deals with two friends on the cusp of adolescence, one Black and the other White, as they embrace their inner wildness until tragedy befalls one of them. In "Tongues," a tensile power struggle between a teenager and the emotionally brutal, restrictive religious patriarchy of her family and their pastor sends her on a journey to unwrap her truest self. A woman must reckon with her thorny relationship with her mother as she decides whether to continue her weeks-old pregnancy while planning her mother's overly grand 50th birthday party in "Necessary Bodies," and "Thicker Than Water" sends a sister on a road trip with her estranged brother and their father's ashes to Santa Fe, where she must find a way to make peace with both her brother and the ghost of a man she loved who hurt her in the worst way a father can hurt a child.Dark and lushly layered, these stories will bewitch you.

School Library Journal Starred Review (Wed Jul 06 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

A hauntingly beautiful collection of lyrical stories connected by themes of tragedy, self-actualization, and that murky time between girlhood and adulthood. Each entry is quiet yet powerful, exploring characters as they grapple with a flux in their life. Set against a Florida background, this collection focuses on Black lives and Black communities. Each story is somber in its own way, and yet also conveys strength and sometimes a glint of optimism. "The Heart of Our Enemies" explores the dynamic between mother and daughter. What starts as a story exploring the shame a young girl might feel over her mother's indiscretions, ends in a mother's revenge against a sexually abusive high school teacher. The content is for mature readers, containing themes of suicidal ideation, rape, sexual abuse, miscarriage, and depression. Teens will be drawn to this collection for its honest portrayal of characters and societal pressures. VERDICT Perfect for fans of Sophia Thakur's Somebody Give This Heart a Pen , Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You , and the film Moonlight , Moniz's debut will not disappoint. Melanie Leivers, Burnsville, MN

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

This powerful debut collection is a wonderland of deep female characters navigating their lives against the ever changeable backdrop of Florida.The feminine is sublime throughout these stories, featuring girls and women who are submerged in loss, love, death, temptation, and the cruelty and benevolence of motherhood, two sides of the same coin. Each story vibrates with a thrumming undercurrent of primal power, found in both nature and in the most shadowy parts of ourselves. In "The Hearts of Our Enemies," Frankie navigates the rockiness between herself and her teenage daughter, Margot, after she tells her husband about her almost-infidelity and he moves out; then she finds a note in Margot's jeans that leads her to discover how far she will go to protect her child against an insidious predator. The title story deals with two friends on the cusp of adolescence, one Black and the other White, as they embrace their inner wildness until tragedy befalls one of them. In "Tongues," a tensile power struggle between a teenager and the emotionally brutal, restrictive religious patriarchy of her family and their pastor sends her on a journey to unwrap her truest self. A woman must reckon with her thorny relationship with her mother as she decides whether to continue her weeks-old pregnancy while planning her mother's overly grand 50th birthday party in "Necessary Bodies," and "Thicker Than Water" sends a sister on a road trip with her estranged brother and their father's ashes to Santa Fe, where she must find a way to make peace with both her brother and the ghost of a man she loved who hurt her in the worst way a father can hurt a child.Dark and lushly layered, these stories will bewitch you.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Northern Florida looms large over the 11 stories that comprise Moniz-s smart debut collection, a comingling of themes of adolescent discovery, family strain, and temptation-s dangerous appeal. In the title story, a friendship between two eighth grade girls, complete with awkward companionship and blood pacts, turns to conversations on death, and -An Almanac of Bones- sees another pair of tweens bonding over animal skulls and one girl-s family tradition of moon festivals. An absent mother figures in the latter story, and fractured relations populate several others. -Thicker Than Water- follows estranged siblings as they reluctantly reunite to drive their father-s ashes to his final resting place. -The Loss of Heaven- stars a 50-something man who begins spending more time at the local watering hole after his wife refuses chemotherapy treatments for her cancer, and in -Snow,- the icy sexual relationship between a woman and her husband leads her to contemplate their future during a night of spiritual awakening while bartending. Some stories end abruptly, but Moniz knows her characters well and writes with confidence throughout, letting narratives meander without losing sight of their destinations. Each of these humanity-studying journeys through the Sunshine State easily stands on its own. Agent: Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, DeFiore and Company (Feb.)