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Moving On
Delia Spencer has the perfect life, a husband who loves her, a satisfying career, and two teenage daughters. Then there is a terrible accident, and that life disappears in a puff of smoke. Everyone keeps telling her to "move on", but how does one move on from the death of a child? How does one restart the clock when they are frozen in time? When nothing in her world is intact, Delia must find some new reason to awaken to the day, something to hold on to that propels her forward, some way in which to escape her life and her guilt. When she cannot find any answers in her present, she steps back into her past. The best way to move on might be to reach back.
206 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 24, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
February 2, 2023
My review is below, but regardless of that, just... just read this book. How it hasn't found a wider audience in the years since its publication is beyond me.
* * * * *
Having lost my beautiful baby sister to an eating disorder six years ago, I'm no stranger to grief. I understand how difficult it is to lose a person that you love more than life itself, and how complicated it is to put the feelings the experience forces upon you into words. In my search for answers, I've sat through hundreds of hours of therapy, written two novels, and read a hundred books about death and grief and all the horrible crap that comes with it. Until now, only Anna Quindlen had come close to describing the feelings of helplessness, guilt, hopelessness and anger that I experienced in the years after my sister's death. This novel, however, trumped even Quindlen's finest work, and I will be forever grateful to the author, not only for her incredible portrayal of loss, but also for helping me to feel normal and forgive myself for moving on.
* * * * *
Having lost my beautiful baby sister to an eating disorder six years ago, I'm no stranger to grief. I understand how difficult it is to lose a person that you love more than life itself, and how complicated it is to put the feelings the experience forces upon you into words. In my search for answers, I've sat through hundreds of hours of therapy, written two novels, and read a hundred books about death and grief and all the horrible crap that comes with it. Until now, only Anna Quindlen had come close to describing the feelings of helplessness, guilt, hopelessness and anger that I experienced in the years after my sister's death. This novel, however, trumped even Quindlen's finest work, and I will be forever grateful to the author, not only for her incredible portrayal of loss, but also for helping me to feel normal and forgive myself for moving on.
October 9, 2022
I just read my friend Christine’s review of this beautiful story and came back to my review to change my rating to the 5 stars it deserves.
*************************************************
This grief is not a grief that I know first hand, but it is one that I am intimately familiar with, having stood by my mother and father, who did know the depth of loss, only a parent who loses a child can know. Sara Steger brings the reader to the depth of this grief, of loss, of despondency, that we may not know ourselves. In these pages, we can almost feel it. We can see it in Delia Spencer, see how utterly broken she is over her losses. I felt like I couldn’t swallow at times reading Delia’s inner thoughts. The novel is narrated in the first person, so it’s an intimate, emotional journey that we are taken on. The funeral, the hospital, the aftermath, the isolation, she’s unable to move forward, feeling that no one, not even her husband knows what she is going through. So she takes time away to her family home, the farm house in this small town of Franklin, Georgia where she was raised. The lovely descriptions of the house and this place take you there with Delia. I loved the way the family history is told. It is here that we get a glimpse of Delia, finding the woman she was, the woman she could be if not so totally defined by her grief. It is here at her grandmother’s homestead in Georgia, that she finds herself.
This is a story of the tragedies that anyone may face at any given time, a reminder of the fragility of human life and also that maybe it is possible to move on and that moving on doesn’t have to mean forgetting. I thought of my mother’s grief at having lost a son to tragic circumstances so many times as I was reading this and of her long journey to be to able to move on one day at a time. The portrayal here is so realistic and I was profoundly moved by how Sara Steger tells this story. I was drawn to read this book after I read my friend Cathrine’s heartfelt review. I was surprised to discover that the author was another Goodreads friend. Sara Steger and I have been friends for a while now reading each other’s reviews and sharing our thoughts and I had no idea that she wrote this book. She doesn’t tout it or ask people to read it, but I will. I read this gem of a book in an afternoon and part of an evening. It’s worth your time.
*************************************************
This grief is not a grief that I know first hand, but it is one that I am intimately familiar with, having stood by my mother and father, who did know the depth of loss, only a parent who loses a child can know. Sara Steger brings the reader to the depth of this grief, of loss, of despondency, that we may not know ourselves. In these pages, we can almost feel it. We can see it in Delia Spencer, see how utterly broken she is over her losses. I felt like I couldn’t swallow at times reading Delia’s inner thoughts. The novel is narrated in the first person, so it’s an intimate, emotional journey that we are taken on. The funeral, the hospital, the aftermath, the isolation, she’s unable to move forward, feeling that no one, not even her husband knows what she is going through. So she takes time away to her family home, the farm house in this small town of Franklin, Georgia where she was raised. The lovely descriptions of the house and this place take you there with Delia. I loved the way the family history is told. It is here that we get a glimpse of Delia, finding the woman she was, the woman she could be if not so totally defined by her grief. It is here at her grandmother’s homestead in Georgia, that she finds herself.
This is a story of the tragedies that anyone may face at any given time, a reminder of the fragility of human life and also that maybe it is possible to move on and that moving on doesn’t have to mean forgetting. I thought of my mother’s grief at having lost a son to tragic circumstances so many times as I was reading this and of her long journey to be to able to move on one day at a time. The portrayal here is so realistic and I was profoundly moved by how Sara Steger tells this story. I was drawn to read this book after I read my friend Cathrine’s heartfelt review. I was surprised to discover that the author was another Goodreads friend. Sara Steger and I have been friends for a while now reading each other’s reviews and sharing our thoughts and I had no idea that she wrote this book. She doesn’t tout it or ask people to read it, but I will. I read this gem of a book in an afternoon and part of an evening. It’s worth your time.
August 25, 2024
Ever been crushed by a sudden loss so Devastating, so Mind-Numbingly Overwhelming, that you can no longer make any SENSE out of ordinary life?
If so, Read THIS.
Have you ever been tied up in mental Knots as a result of that loss - hard, encrusted knots like the philosopher Derrida calls inextricable Aporia - that you no longer even Know YOURSELF?
If you have, Read THIS.
***
I read it two winters back from the one we will soon enter, and I have Never given this highly accomplished writer the Courtesy of a Review.
Because I was caught up in a mini-aporia of my own. My own knots.
They say when a great world power is caught up in the frenzy of its own Selfhood, that frenzy carries far afield.
In this case, it had carried all the way here, to bounce my OWN wounded ego around a few times.
You know, even people who try mightily to be good have an Achilles Heel. Mine (because the good I’ve done has never been pervasive) is Sloth.
I have tried to cling to my slow, ambling ways of taking muted pleasure in life - adamantly - to my discredit and great loss!
It was Selfish, because I never saw the other side of the coin of life clearly - other folks’ POV.
But now, two years after the fact, I have to admit that Sara’s crystalline and razor sharp prose was helping to WAKE ME UP.
Sh*t happens...
And can happen to ANY of us poor, little self-possessed Ostriches!
So now I see this book as is in fact the sensible pep talk I always shoulda had.
And it’s a Great book.
***
So, in these Dark Days, would anyone like a little wake up call?
This book is IT, friends.
If so, Read THIS.
Have you ever been tied up in mental Knots as a result of that loss - hard, encrusted knots like the philosopher Derrida calls inextricable Aporia - that you no longer even Know YOURSELF?
If you have, Read THIS.
***
I read it two winters back from the one we will soon enter, and I have Never given this highly accomplished writer the Courtesy of a Review.
Because I was caught up in a mini-aporia of my own. My own knots.
They say when a great world power is caught up in the frenzy of its own Selfhood, that frenzy carries far afield.
In this case, it had carried all the way here, to bounce my OWN wounded ego around a few times.
You know, even people who try mightily to be good have an Achilles Heel. Mine (because the good I’ve done has never been pervasive) is Sloth.
I have tried to cling to my slow, ambling ways of taking muted pleasure in life - adamantly - to my discredit and great loss!
It was Selfish, because I never saw the other side of the coin of life clearly - other folks’ POV.
But now, two years after the fact, I have to admit that Sara’s crystalline and razor sharp prose was helping to WAKE ME UP.
Sh*t happens...
And can happen to ANY of us poor, little self-possessed Ostriches!
So now I see this book as is in fact the sensible pep talk I always shoulda had.
And it’s a Great book.
***
So, in these Dark Days, would anyone like a little wake up call?
This book is IT, friends.
November 25, 2022
"I expected to splinter into shards and tinkle into a pile on the floor. I wondered if anyone would think to sweep me up."
This profoundly moving story is told in the first person by Delia Spencer, a mother who is abjectly unable to move on from the unanticipated deaths of her two teenage daughters.
Sara Steger brings us an intimate portrayal of one woman's hermitic descent into the deepest depths of anguish and personal guilt. The author's pictorial style of writing complements the rawness of the subject matter, focussing on the unravelling relationship between two devoted parents as they each become strangers within the vacuum of their grief.
The story reveals its chronology slowly, and we gradually begin to piece together a succession of connected events. Very clever staging by Steger; a story told almost in reverse! The author has an observant eye and conveys human mannerisms with discerning ease, the dependability of her elegant prose putting me in mind of her near-namesake, Wallace Stegner.
In an attempt to exorcise her demons, Delia makes a clean break and goes back to her roots, eschewing city life for a simpler existence. She soon finds that she can't hide from her torment as it has an unbreakable hold on her soul.
It is here that Steger draws symbolic parallels as Roscoe, a stray dog, and Carly (something of a stray teenager) tentatively learn to trust Delia in the same way that she must learn to put her trust in the quiddity of love and human kindness.
This is a gratifying and deeply affecting story that had me captivated to the extent that I rarely left my armchair. Steger writes from the heart and constructs telling sentences with effortless ease.
Will Delia find solace in the most serendipitous of ways? And will the guilty secret that haunts her be finally revealed? Read the book to find out.
A moving, yet uplifting, read. Sara Steger is a wonderful writer!
This profoundly moving story is told in the first person by Delia Spencer, a mother who is abjectly unable to move on from the unanticipated deaths of her two teenage daughters.
Sara Steger brings us an intimate portrayal of one woman's hermitic descent into the deepest depths of anguish and personal guilt. The author's pictorial style of writing complements the rawness of the subject matter, focussing on the unravelling relationship between two devoted parents as they each become strangers within the vacuum of their grief.
The story reveals its chronology slowly, and we gradually begin to piece together a succession of connected events. Very clever staging by Steger; a story told almost in reverse! The author has an observant eye and conveys human mannerisms with discerning ease, the dependability of her elegant prose putting me in mind of her near-namesake, Wallace Stegner.
In an attempt to exorcise her demons, Delia makes a clean break and goes back to her roots, eschewing city life for a simpler existence. She soon finds that she can't hide from her torment as it has an unbreakable hold on her soul.
It is here that Steger draws symbolic parallels as Roscoe, a stray dog, and Carly (something of a stray teenager) tentatively learn to trust Delia in the same way that she must learn to put her trust in the quiddity of love and human kindness.
This is a gratifying and deeply affecting story that had me captivated to the extent that I rarely left my armchair. Steger writes from the heart and constructs telling sentences with effortless ease.
Will Delia find solace in the most serendipitous of ways? And will the guilty secret that haunts her be finally revealed? Read the book to find out.
A moving, yet uplifting, read. Sara Steger is a wonderful writer!
October 10, 2022
Update below ✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️ emojis
I finished reading this story at 6:04 am ….read it in one sitting — was crying towards the end … so affected ….
I put my kindle on my nightstand…
and right when I pulled our sheets and quilt tighter around me … and tucked my head deeper into my pillow to have a private quiet cry — Paul reached over … for morning spooning ….
The rest of my review is likely to have spoilers… so if that’s a problem … do not read any more of this review …
it’s also very likely to include my reactions- feelings - and thoughts - about pain, grief, love, loss, death, marriage, parenting, friendships, dogs, quiet lives vs. busy lives, celebrating death vs. morning death …. and moving on ….
If this review is long and chatty — I’m selfishly writing it for my own needs —
If I include lots of excerpts it’s because THEY MEAN SOMETHING TO ME…..
I’m very VERY moved by this story — I kid you not: I ACHE still…. and wished a couple of specifics in the story would have been different….(only for my own selfish reasons)….
But I can honestly say —
this is ONE SPECIAL STORY … MASTERLY WRITTEN….
by one VERY SPECIAL WOMAN …. I’m not surprised at all that my friend - (our friend) - a LONG TIME VERY CLOSE VERY SPECIAL GOODREADS to me —-grateful for years of our own private intimacy and exchanges. …. for over ten years…..
Sara Steger wrote the PERFECT DEBUT NOVEL ….
It wouldn’t surprise me at all — if several major publishing companies fight over the excitement to publish her books — THEY SHOULD!!!!
and why Sara Stegner is not writing MORE BOOKS is a shame …..
Now …. Before I start writing those spoilers I mentioned …
It’s Sunday morning …. I’m going to take some time to be with my husband ….
I’d LOVE TO COME BACK HERE AND SHARE MORE LATER TODAY …..
I will be back …..
Nobody needs to read the rest of my review with spoilers — but I hope EVERY READER on this site will read this book —
If you can’t afford the price — I’ll pay it for anyone myself!!!
I sooooo believe in this author!!! EAT MY HAT IF YOU ARE NOT DEEPLY MOVED BY THIS BOOK!!!
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE!!!
If EVER an unrecognized author needs to be — it’s SARA
Besides our authentic real friendship ( and we don’t even read half of the same books)…. but half of them we DO ( even several together)….
I’ve been a HUGE FAN and ADVOCATE of Sara’s writing abilities from WAY BACK- her keen editing eye to boot
… I’ve always known Sara could write ….( I’m sooo proud - proud beyond words - but very sad I didn’t read this book much sooner!!!!). I honestly didn’t know!!!
Big thanks to Angela’s review!!! I woke up!!
And geee — Sara wasn’t going to self promote herself — she is very respectful of healthy boundaries and not using her friendship for her own self interest — and I love her more for this. But I am so - soooo deeply sorry I didn’t know Sara wrote THIS BOOK MUCH SOONER (I’m mad at my own dough-dough brain) …
I love love love this story — love this woman — couldn’t be more happy to discover this book is REALLY WORTH READING! It’s a book for ALL MEN and WOMEN!!
It’s a gut wrenching- heartfelt —-
PAGE TURNING ONE SITTING READ …
5+++++ stars from me⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ + ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My REAL REVIEW IS COMING SOON!!!
Bless you Sara >> love you BUNCHES!!!
✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️
Update ….. “There is no right or wrong way to feel grief”.
There was a car accident. Two sisters were in the car. Corrine died right away. There was a funeral—Corrine’s entire senior class was present.
Her younger sister, Melissa, was still in the hospital in critical condition.
During Corrine’s funeral —Delia Spencer (Dee, or Didi) is buried in grief.
Eddie, (loving husband and loving father) was equally distraught with grief and anguish….
but as much as Dee and Eddie loved each other….(they were usually each other’s comforts), the death of their child made things awkward. Their conversations were stilted. They dance around their feelings …..”tucking them neatly into knapped sacks; needing so much from each other, but able to take so little”.
Eighteen days after Corrine died — her funeral over — Melissa died too.
It’s devastating unbearable to lose a child - two? A nightmare!!!
But …..
I love the way wrote this story…..(almost impossible not to read it in one sitting)…
She took time to give the reader an experience of these two girls: Melissa and Corrine.
I liked getting to know a little about their lives, their friends, hopes and plans, (Duke College in the fall for Corrine), the book Corrine was reading —“The English Patient”….but never got to finish the end of Ondaatje’s great novel, their personalities and dispositions—(Melissa was the sweetest younger sister — not at all an eye-rolling rebel yet whatsoever).
We first begin our relationship with Dee’s inner-most thoughts at the funeral…..(the start of this novel)…..and will spend much of our time with her emotional (and our own emotional) journey to the end.
Dee was in a half-zombie state at Corrine’s funeral. The room was packed with school classmates. The entire senior class attended as well as many other students, teachers, and parents from the large school community.
Dee was observing the crowd…taking mental notes. She saw Russell Patton and thought:
“Those arms were the last to encircle my daughters waist at a dance, the last to brush her hair from her face for a midnight kiss”.
Dee continues to look around the room:
Dee looked around the room —noticing the other young people with futures ahead.
“I had wiped their noses when they were small and endured their distasteful music when they were older. I saw them now, not as they were, dressed in their suits in their ties and black silk dresses, but in jeans with lanky arms and legs dangling over my sofa arms, I-pod earplugs protruding from their stringy hair”.
More inner thoughts from Dee…..
“I studied the faces and could see that beneath the sadness each of the teenagers carried with him a sense of profound relief and utter immortality. Corrine’s unexpected death carried with it a fright, but also the reassurance that this particular calamity could now somehow never be their own. A tragedy of this magnitude, like a strike of lightning, can never happen twice in the same place. Corrine’s death, it logically followed, was their protection”.
“Across from me, above the coffin, an endlessly spooling video played out a parade of photographs recounting the six-thousand, four hundred and seventy nine days of Corinne’s life from birth through November of her seventeenth year”.
Time and seasons were passing.
Dee took some personal time. She went to stay in the farm house where she was raised by her Nana— Liberty County —Franklin, Georgia.
Dee remembered the many farm stories from her Nana….
picking cotton, milking cows, feeding chickens, tending to the vegetable garden…and the delicious fried green tomatoes and squash and the best cornbread in the county.
After the accident Dee found it hard to tolerate being around people for long periods of time. (understandable).
Sara divided this story into three parts: present, past, future.
Each section is vital to the next —
Eddie was slipping away from Dee. He had a daughter and granddaughter from his first marriage. I hoped that Eddie was getting comfort from them.
Dee was slipping away from Eddie. I hoped she was finding the comfort she needed.
My wish was that Eddie and Dee would find their way back together — but that doesn’t happen.
I couldn’t hold my tears back any longer towards the end — knowing—(maybe for healthy reasons)— Dee and Eddie ‘would’ be getting divorce.
But since I don’t want to give all the juicy details away…..
…..there is some laughter and joy too ….a new community of wonderful characters — Haydon (the local vet) Roscoe (the lovable dog)….other friends - family folks - and the heartfelt small town community.
Dee was moving on…..
…..beautiful doors opened….
Eddie would move on too…
My EMOTIONS?
OMG…..I felt everything in this gem of a novel.
This story would make a great movie!!!
Sara’s writing has strength with pitch-perfect dialogue; the way her prose delicately captures thoughts . . . and clarity of her descriptions.
And …..
while this book clearly deals with a dark, difficult subject, I can’t imagine anyone better equipped to do full justice to this profound human experience.
I finished reading this story at 6:04 am ….read it in one sitting — was crying towards the end … so affected ….
I put my kindle on my nightstand…
and right when I pulled our sheets and quilt tighter around me … and tucked my head deeper into my pillow to have a private quiet cry — Paul reached over … for morning spooning ….
The rest of my review is likely to have spoilers… so if that’s a problem … do not read any more of this review …
it’s also very likely to include my reactions- feelings - and thoughts - about pain, grief, love, loss, death, marriage, parenting, friendships, dogs, quiet lives vs. busy lives, celebrating death vs. morning death …. and moving on ….
If this review is long and chatty — I’m selfishly writing it for my own needs —
If I include lots of excerpts it’s because THEY MEAN SOMETHING TO ME…..
I’m very VERY moved by this story — I kid you not: I ACHE still…. and wished a couple of specifics in the story would have been different….(only for my own selfish reasons)….
But I can honestly say —
this is ONE SPECIAL STORY … MASTERLY WRITTEN….
by one VERY SPECIAL WOMAN …. I’m not surprised at all that my friend - (our friend) - a LONG TIME VERY CLOSE VERY SPECIAL GOODREADS to me —-grateful for years of our own private intimacy and exchanges. …. for over ten years…..
Sara Steger wrote the PERFECT DEBUT NOVEL ….
It wouldn’t surprise me at all — if several major publishing companies fight over the excitement to publish her books — THEY SHOULD!!!!
and why Sara Stegner is not writing MORE BOOKS is a shame …..
Now …. Before I start writing those spoilers I mentioned …
It’s Sunday morning …. I’m going to take some time to be with my husband ….
I’d LOVE TO COME BACK HERE AND SHARE MORE LATER TODAY …..
I will be back …..
Nobody needs to read the rest of my review with spoilers — but I hope EVERY READER on this site will read this book —
If you can’t afford the price — I’ll pay it for anyone myself!!!
I sooooo believe in this author!!! EAT MY HAT IF YOU ARE NOT DEEPLY MOVED BY THIS BOOK!!!
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE!!!
If EVER an unrecognized author needs to be — it’s SARA
Besides our authentic real friendship ( and we don’t even read half of the same books)…. but half of them we DO ( even several together)….
I’ve been a HUGE FAN and ADVOCATE of Sara’s writing abilities from WAY BACK- her keen editing eye to boot
… I’ve always known Sara could write ….( I’m sooo proud - proud beyond words - but very sad I didn’t read this book much sooner!!!!). I honestly didn’t know!!!
Big thanks to Angela’s review!!! I woke up!!
And geee — Sara wasn’t going to self promote herself — she is very respectful of healthy boundaries and not using her friendship for her own self interest — and I love her more for this. But I am so - soooo deeply sorry I didn’t know Sara wrote THIS BOOK MUCH SOONER (I’m mad at my own dough-dough brain) …
I love love love this story — love this woman — couldn’t be more happy to discover this book is REALLY WORTH READING! It’s a book for ALL MEN and WOMEN!!
It’s a gut wrenching- heartfelt —-
PAGE TURNING ONE SITTING READ …
5+++++ stars from me⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ + ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My REAL REVIEW IS COMING SOON!!!
Bless you Sara >> love you BUNCHES!!!
✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️
Update ….. “There is no right or wrong way to feel grief”.
There was a car accident. Two sisters were in the car. Corrine died right away. There was a funeral—Corrine’s entire senior class was present.
Her younger sister, Melissa, was still in the hospital in critical condition.
During Corrine’s funeral —Delia Spencer (Dee, or Didi) is buried in grief.
Eddie, (loving husband and loving father) was equally distraught with grief and anguish….
but as much as Dee and Eddie loved each other….(they were usually each other’s comforts), the death of their child made things awkward. Their conversations were stilted. They dance around their feelings …..”tucking them neatly into knapped sacks; needing so much from each other, but able to take so little”.
Eighteen days after Corrine died — her funeral over — Melissa died too.
It’s devastating unbearable to lose a child - two? A nightmare!!!
But …..
I love the way wrote this story…..(almost impossible not to read it in one sitting)…
She took time to give the reader an experience of these two girls: Melissa and Corrine.
I liked getting to know a little about their lives, their friends, hopes and plans, (Duke College in the fall for Corrine), the book Corrine was reading —“The English Patient”….but never got to finish the end of Ondaatje’s great novel, their personalities and dispositions—(Melissa was the sweetest younger sister — not at all an eye-rolling rebel yet whatsoever).
We first begin our relationship with Dee’s inner-most thoughts at the funeral…..(the start of this novel)…..and will spend much of our time with her emotional (and our own emotional) journey to the end.
Dee was in a half-zombie state at Corrine’s funeral. The room was packed with school classmates. The entire senior class attended as well as many other students, teachers, and parents from the large school community.
Dee was observing the crowd…taking mental notes. She saw Russell Patton and thought:
“Those arms were the last to encircle my daughters waist at a dance, the last to brush her hair from her face for a midnight kiss”.
Dee continues to look around the room:
Dee looked around the room —noticing the other young people with futures ahead.
“I had wiped their noses when they were small and endured their distasteful music when they were older. I saw them now, not as they were, dressed in their suits in their ties and black silk dresses, but in jeans with lanky arms and legs dangling over my sofa arms, I-pod earplugs protruding from their stringy hair”.
More inner thoughts from Dee…..
“I studied the faces and could see that beneath the sadness each of the teenagers carried with him a sense of profound relief and utter immortality. Corrine’s unexpected death carried with it a fright, but also the reassurance that this particular calamity could now somehow never be their own. A tragedy of this magnitude, like a strike of lightning, can never happen twice in the same place. Corrine’s death, it logically followed, was their protection”.
“Across from me, above the coffin, an endlessly spooling video played out a parade of photographs recounting the six-thousand, four hundred and seventy nine days of Corinne’s life from birth through November of her seventeenth year”.
Time and seasons were passing.
Dee took some personal time. She went to stay in the farm house where she was raised by her Nana— Liberty County —Franklin, Georgia.
Dee remembered the many farm stories from her Nana….
picking cotton, milking cows, feeding chickens, tending to the vegetable garden…and the delicious fried green tomatoes and squash and the best cornbread in the county.
After the accident Dee found it hard to tolerate being around people for long periods of time. (understandable).
Sara divided this story into three parts: present, past, future.
Each section is vital to the next —
Eddie was slipping away from Dee. He had a daughter and granddaughter from his first marriage. I hoped that Eddie was getting comfort from them.
Dee was slipping away from Eddie. I hoped she was finding the comfort she needed.
My wish was that Eddie and Dee would find their way back together — but that doesn’t happen.
I couldn’t hold my tears back any longer towards the end — knowing—(maybe for healthy reasons)— Dee and Eddie ‘would’ be getting divorce.
But since I don’t want to give all the juicy details away…..
…..there is some laughter and joy too ….a new community of wonderful characters — Haydon (the local vet) Roscoe (the lovable dog)….other friends - family folks - and the heartfelt small town community.
Dee was moving on…..
…..beautiful doors opened….
Eddie would move on too…
My EMOTIONS?
OMG…..I felt everything in this gem of a novel.
This story would make a great movie!!!
Sara’s writing has strength with pitch-perfect dialogue; the way her prose delicately captures thoughts . . . and clarity of her descriptions.
And …..
while this book clearly deals with a dark, difficult subject, I can’t imagine anyone better equipped to do full justice to this profound human experience.
October 9, 2022
Moving On is a beautiful story about a terribly traumatized woman who eventually musters the courage and will power to regain her life. A terrible accident, the horrific guilt, and the unraveling of her marriage sends Delia (Didi) back to the rural south and her childhood home, which has remained vacant since her Nana’s death many years previous. Didi initially soaks in the solitude, but eventually life begins delivering some unexpected twists.
I really enjoyed this life-affirming journey of a completely devastated woman. To watch her slowly rise from the ashes to a purposeful and gratifying sense of well-being was captivating. The book is written in Delia’s voice, making the initial third of the novel a particularly tough read as Delia struggles to maintain her will to live. As she eventually sets forth and plans the first steps of her roadmap to recover her life, I was totally drawn in and found it difficult to pull myself away. Ms. Steger has a wonderful grasp of human emotions and their subtleties. I was impressed with her depictions of Delia’s evolution of changes, including letting go without losing memories, making necessary sacrifices, and the slow yet solid re-entry into relationships with others. The author’s pacing of these changes is spot on.
The only revision I would make is to have more “show” and less “tell.” The novel is only around 200 pages, and I think another 100 pages could easily be justified in order to provide more “show.”
I congratulate the author on her lovely debut novel and highly recommend Moving On to anyone looking for a quick read ladened with depth, emotions, and inspiration. I look forward to reading anything else Ms. Steger may write in the future.
I really enjoyed this life-affirming journey of a completely devastated woman. To watch her slowly rise from the ashes to a purposeful and gratifying sense of well-being was captivating. The book is written in Delia’s voice, making the initial third of the novel a particularly tough read as Delia struggles to maintain her will to live. As she eventually sets forth and plans the first steps of her roadmap to recover her life, I was totally drawn in and found it difficult to pull myself away. Ms. Steger has a wonderful grasp of human emotions and their subtleties. I was impressed with her depictions of Delia’s evolution of changes, including letting go without losing memories, making necessary sacrifices, and the slow yet solid re-entry into relationships with others. The author’s pacing of these changes is spot on.
The only revision I would make is to have more “show” and less “tell.” The novel is only around 200 pages, and I think another 100 pages could easily be justified in order to provide more “show.”
I congratulate the author on her lovely debut novel and highly recommend Moving On to anyone looking for a quick read ladened with depth, emotions, and inspiration. I look forward to reading anything else Ms. Steger may write in the future.
March 11, 2023
After suffering the grievous loss of her two daughters, Delia is devastated, her reason for being seemingly gone. Family life once taken for granted has been decimated, leading to "a total disconnect" with her husband. Unable to function, Delia leaves the city and moves back to her childhood home to take stock of her shattered life, hoping the change of location and time away will help. This is the story of a woman who desperately needs to find a purpose in life, being needed might just make the difference for her.
I learned of this book from Howard, a GR friend. Although I follow Sara's reviews, I was unaware that she had penned a book. Her reviews are always a pleasure to read, and now I know why. I am not an overly demonstrative individual, but I wanted to hug this book to my heart upon finishing.
I learned of this book from Howard, a GR friend. Although I follow Sara's reviews, I was unaware that she had penned a book. Her reviews are always a pleasure to read, and now I know why. I am not an overly demonstrative individual, but I wanted to hug this book to my heart upon finishing.
August 31, 2019
4 ★
“Grief is never something you get over. You don't wake up one morning and say, 'I've conquered that; now I'm moving on.' It's something that walks beside you every day. And if you can learn how to manage it and honor the person that you miss, you can take something that is incredibly sad and have some form of positivity.”
Terri Irwin
Delia Spencer has lost her reason for living. Grief has shut her down and nothing is or will be the same again, ever. What is she to do with herself and her life?
Sara Steger has written a tragic, sad, yet ultimately positive story about profound loss and its aftermath in her poignant tale Moving On. The pages give the reader a glimpse into the deep mystery of the pain, trauma, guilt, and disconnect a loved one or friend may experience after losing a child. After that child is gone other losses follow. I have not personally suffered this but two dear friends have and continue to do so every day. For me this story honors their walk in that lonesome valley. I read in almost one take.
“Grief is never something you get over. You don't wake up one morning and say, 'I've conquered that; now I'm moving on.' It's something that walks beside you every day. And if you can learn how to manage it and honor the person that you miss, you can take something that is incredibly sad and have some form of positivity.”
Terri Irwin
Delia Spencer has lost her reason for living. Grief has shut her down and nothing is or will be the same again, ever. What is she to do with herself and her life?
Sara Steger has written a tragic, sad, yet ultimately positive story about profound loss and its aftermath in her poignant tale Moving On. The pages give the reader a glimpse into the deep mystery of the pain, trauma, guilt, and disconnect a loved one or friend may experience after losing a child. After that child is gone other losses follow. I have not personally suffered this but two dear friends have and continue to do so every day. For me this story honors their walk in that lonesome valley. I read in almost one take.
November 19, 2019
4.5 Stars
As this debut novel begins, there is a funeral, a mother wandering among those offering condolences in a haze of grief, her “eyes stinging from the pressure of unspent tears. The bright colors of the carnations, larkspurs, asters and delphinium, mixed with the occasional white of a calla lily, looked more festive than mournful. They were all beautifully fresh and absolutely dying, a terrifying reminder of how easily we pass from one realm to the other.”
Loss is part of life, we know that, and yet … when it strikes us we struggle with how this could happen; how it could be that this child on the brink of adulthood could simply be gone. And yes, people will understand grief, your need to grieve, but most people are not comfortable around those grieving, unable or unwilling to help the grieving through their process. We can only see grief, really, through our own experiences, and offer what helped us in a time approaching grief, and our experiences are never the same as others, filtered through our own moments of life and living.
”I had been transported instantaneously from a life in which I could not find enough hours in the day to do everything, to one in which I counted endless individual minutes hoping that the day would disappear.”
Tensions build at home, and soon she leaves to get some space and time away from all of the reminders of her loss, the mounting pressure to get on with her life, and returns to the home of her youth in a small town in Georgia. Once there, without the reminders that she’s not living up to others requirements, she is able to let down her guard, a bit. There are people from her childhood still living there who recall her as the young woman she was before she left, and surrounded by the walls of this home that once belonged to her grandmother, and family even beyond that, the feeling of being pressured lifts a bit at a time.
The first event that changes her life is a dog, an animal she can partially see one night at a distance, which seems skittish and afraid. She buys food for it and leaves it in spots ever closer to the house, then on the porch, and soon he goes missing. In finding him hurt, she runs into a teenage girl who helps her get him into her car. A visit to a veterinarian brings another person into her life. People who don’t judge her.
”What a strange thing time was. It plodded behind you and nipped at your heels. It raced ahead of you and promised what it could never deliver. Did one ever live in real time, I wondered? Weren’t we always wishing for either the past or the future? At sixteen, we yearn to be twenty-one; at twenty-five we are afraid to be thirty; at forty, thirty takes on the luster of lost youth; and through it all we reach forward or back for what we wish to own or for what we once owned but can now never have.”
A lovely, heartfelt portrait of grief, insights on forgiveness - of ourselves as well as others; love and family in all their many varieties.
Many thanks to Angela for her review that had me adding this story, and to Sara Steger whose lovely writing and heartbreaking yet heartwarming story stunned me, since it is only recently I learned that she is an author. This was lovely.
As this debut novel begins, there is a funeral, a mother wandering among those offering condolences in a haze of grief, her “eyes stinging from the pressure of unspent tears. The bright colors of the carnations, larkspurs, asters and delphinium, mixed with the occasional white of a calla lily, looked more festive than mournful. They were all beautifully fresh and absolutely dying, a terrifying reminder of how easily we pass from one realm to the other.”
Loss is part of life, we know that, and yet … when it strikes us we struggle with how this could happen; how it could be that this child on the brink of adulthood could simply be gone. And yes, people will understand grief, your need to grieve, but most people are not comfortable around those grieving, unable or unwilling to help the grieving through their process. We can only see grief, really, through our own experiences, and offer what helped us in a time approaching grief, and our experiences are never the same as others, filtered through our own moments of life and living.
”I had been transported instantaneously from a life in which I could not find enough hours in the day to do everything, to one in which I counted endless individual minutes hoping that the day would disappear.”
Tensions build at home, and soon she leaves to get some space and time away from all of the reminders of her loss, the mounting pressure to get on with her life, and returns to the home of her youth in a small town in Georgia. Once there, without the reminders that she’s not living up to others requirements, she is able to let down her guard, a bit. There are people from her childhood still living there who recall her as the young woman she was before she left, and surrounded by the walls of this home that once belonged to her grandmother, and family even beyond that, the feeling of being pressured lifts a bit at a time.
The first event that changes her life is a dog, an animal she can partially see one night at a distance, which seems skittish and afraid. She buys food for it and leaves it in spots ever closer to the house, then on the porch, and soon he goes missing. In finding him hurt, she runs into a teenage girl who helps her get him into her car. A visit to a veterinarian brings another person into her life. People who don’t judge her.
”What a strange thing time was. It plodded behind you and nipped at your heels. It raced ahead of you and promised what it could never deliver. Did one ever live in real time, I wondered? Weren’t we always wishing for either the past or the future? At sixteen, we yearn to be twenty-one; at twenty-five we are afraid to be thirty; at forty, thirty takes on the luster of lost youth; and through it all we reach forward or back for what we wish to own or for what we once owned but can now never have.”
A lovely, heartfelt portrait of grief, insights on forgiveness - of ourselves as well as others; love and family in all their many varieties.
Many thanks to Angela for her review that had me adding this story, and to Sara Steger whose lovely writing and heartbreaking yet heartwarming story stunned me, since it is only recently I learned that she is an author. This was lovely.
November 21, 2022
Moving On takes an unflinching but compassionate look at the deepest of all sorrows – the loss of one’s children.
Delia and Eddie Spencer were confronted with the sudden and untimely death of their teenage daughters. My heart bled for them. In fact, their grief and anguish kept me up one night as I pondered how they were going to survive a loss of such a colossal magnitude. Steger’s perceptive prose rendered the couple’s suffering visceral and painfully palpable. She wrote from a place of understanding and empathy. It was almost unbearable to witness how the untimely death of children eroded not just the couple’s marriage and social relationships, but also their very selves. The alienation was directed inward and hurt deeply.
Delia fled her marital home in Richmond and sought refuge in her childhood home in South Georgia where she lived with her grandma. She threw herself into renovating the house she inherited from Nana and let the familiar landscape minister comfort to her. I celebrated the day she befriended a stray dog and had her first laugh in months. Then an encounter with a teenage girl, a stray kid of sorts, set in motion the gears that moved her onto a restorative rhythm of fresh beginnings.
Delia’s story shed light on the challenges of parenthood and how hard it is to balance exercising watchful control and granting autonomy to adolescent children straining to be free. It is a delicate dance familiar to many parents who have experienced similar travails.
Part of me wished that she and Eddie would overcome the estrangement that befell their relationship. Then I remembered the book’s title and allowed myself to move on with Delia. Finally, Delia’s story is one of hope, borne of allowing oneself space to grieve and heal.
Read Moving On, a powerfully and beautifully written debut. Thank you, Sara.
Delia and Eddie Spencer were confronted with the sudden and untimely death of their teenage daughters. My heart bled for them. In fact, their grief and anguish kept me up one night as I pondered how they were going to survive a loss of such a colossal magnitude. Steger’s perceptive prose rendered the couple’s suffering visceral and painfully palpable. She wrote from a place of understanding and empathy. It was almost unbearable to witness how the untimely death of children eroded not just the couple’s marriage and social relationships, but also their very selves. The alienation was directed inward and hurt deeply.
Delia fled her marital home in Richmond and sought refuge in her childhood home in South Georgia where she lived with her grandma. She threw herself into renovating the house she inherited from Nana and let the familiar landscape minister comfort to her. I celebrated the day she befriended a stray dog and had her first laugh in months. Then an encounter with a teenage girl, a stray kid of sorts, set in motion the gears that moved her onto a restorative rhythm of fresh beginnings.
Delia’s story shed light on the challenges of parenthood and how hard it is to balance exercising watchful control and granting autonomy to adolescent children straining to be free. It is a delicate dance familiar to many parents who have experienced similar travails.
Part of me wished that she and Eddie would overcome the estrangement that befell their relationship. Then I remembered the book’s title and allowed myself to move on with Delia. Finally, Delia’s story is one of hope, borne of allowing oneself space to grieve and heal.
Read Moving On, a powerfully and beautifully written debut. Thank you, Sara.
May 2, 2016
This wonderful first novel is an introspective view of the most unbearable loss and subsequent grief and the process of coping. The author displays the utmost skill and insight into human emotion. Her writing has the ability to touch you in places that are raw and take you places you may not want to go but would benefit from visiting. I shed tears at many points in the story. It also hit close to home after the very recent passing of my mother. I felt as if I walked in Delia's shadow through her fog of grief.
There is a beautiful comparison of grief to solitary confinement.
"This was what is was to be alone. No wonder solitary confinement was considered such a severe punishment. Being locked away from everyone you loved was infinitely cruel. Still, solitary would only work perfectly if you first stripped the prisoner of his hopes and dreams. There must be no future on which to focus."
I could relate to this image. You can not share the space with anyone. There are no doors or windows and walls keep anyone from getting in or out. Connections are lost. This isolation led to a falling out with Delia's husband. I wondered, does Eddie not grieve? I would have liked to understand him better.
After a painful incident with her step-daughter (boy that made me furious!) Delia moves back to her childhood home. I loved this transition to the small town and the old house on the ridge overlooking the water on the Georgia coast as well as the transition back into Delia's past. She reconnects and rediscovers herself after losing herself to grief and finds herself being needed again. This portion of the story evolves so sweetly. Delia is basically adopted by numerous strays - a dog, a lone teenager, a vet, an elderly family friend. Through them, Delia is able to come out of her self-imposed, but understandable, solitary confinement. I could feel myself there with Delia and her new "family."
There were so many heartfelt passages.
"Climbing up the ridge was harder than coming down and the bright sunlight contrasted sharply with the darkness inside the cliff face. I was reminded that my path in life was currently a similar dark and uphill climb, and I wondered if there was light and level ground somewhere above me."
and,
"We laughed, and the sound of our laughter mixed into a heavenly potion and floated away from us into the night sky."
The story has a nice arc to it. It reminds me of diving into deep water as far as one can go and then slowly rising to the top and emerging with a gasp and the sun in one's eyes. The initial tragic incident, the fall into the depths of grief, the rise from the fall, the resolution of the incident and acceptance of it, and at last the sight of hope for the future. I loved the ending and was hoping for more!
There is a beautiful comparison of grief to solitary confinement.
"This was what is was to be alone. No wonder solitary confinement was considered such a severe punishment. Being locked away from everyone you loved was infinitely cruel. Still, solitary would only work perfectly if you first stripped the prisoner of his hopes and dreams. There must be no future on which to focus."
I could relate to this image. You can not share the space with anyone. There are no doors or windows and walls keep anyone from getting in or out. Connections are lost. This isolation led to a falling out with Delia's husband. I wondered, does Eddie not grieve? I would have liked to understand him better.
After a painful incident with her step-daughter (boy that made me furious!) Delia moves back to her childhood home. I loved this transition to the small town and the old house on the ridge overlooking the water on the Georgia coast as well as the transition back into Delia's past. She reconnects and rediscovers herself after losing herself to grief and finds herself being needed again. This portion of the story evolves so sweetly. Delia is basically adopted by numerous strays - a dog, a lone teenager, a vet, an elderly family friend. Through them, Delia is able to come out of her self-imposed, but understandable, solitary confinement. I could feel myself there with Delia and her new "family."
There were so many heartfelt passages.
"Climbing up the ridge was harder than coming down and the bright sunlight contrasted sharply with the darkness inside the cliff face. I was reminded that my path in life was currently a similar dark and uphill climb, and I wondered if there was light and level ground somewhere above me."
and,
"We laughed, and the sound of our laughter mixed into a heavenly potion and floated away from us into the night sky."
The story has a nice arc to it. It reminds me of diving into deep water as far as one can go and then slowly rising to the top and emerging with a gasp and the sun in one's eyes. The initial tragic incident, the fall into the depths of grief, the rise from the fall, the resolution of the incident and acceptance of it, and at last the sight of hope for the future. I loved the ending and was hoping for more!
February 4, 2024
Delia Spencer was living through a parent's worst nightmare--the loss of the children that she and her husband had lovingly nurtured. How does a person get up in the morning when they no longer have a reason for living?
"I had been transported instantaneously from a life in which I could not find enough hours in the day to do everything, to one in which I counted endless individual minutes hoping that the day would disappear."
Delia and her husband were unable to communicate. She was burdened with overwhelming grief and decided to go away to her inherited childhood home in rural Georgia. It gave her a chance to spend some time away from all the constant painful reminders in her Virginia home, and occupy herself with fixing up the Georgia house. She found healing and purpose in reaching out and helping others. Grief never goes away completely and Delia will never forget her daughters, but her new life has meaning and hope for the future.
I've been reading the Goodreads reviews of author Sara Steger for years since her thoughts are always so perceptive and beautifully written. Sara has taken us on an emotional journey in this book from grief, guilt, and disconnection from life to a place where Delia can notice a beautiful sunrise and care for people again. I highly recommend Sara's heartfelt book, "Moving On."
"I had been transported instantaneously from a life in which I could not find enough hours in the day to do everything, to one in which I counted endless individual minutes hoping that the day would disappear."
Delia and her husband were unable to communicate. She was burdened with overwhelming grief and decided to go away to her inherited childhood home in rural Georgia. It gave her a chance to spend some time away from all the constant painful reminders in her Virginia home, and occupy herself with fixing up the Georgia house. She found healing and purpose in reaching out and helping others. Grief never goes away completely and Delia will never forget her daughters, but her new life has meaning and hope for the future.
I've been reading the Goodreads reviews of author Sara Steger for years since her thoughts are always so perceptive and beautifully written. Sara has taken us on an emotional journey in this book from grief, guilt, and disconnection from life to a place where Delia can notice a beautiful sunrise and care for people again. I highly recommend Sara's heartfelt book, "Moving On."
March 24, 2019
Just finished. Downloaded a sample to read, and I couldn't stop reading .... Read the whole book, instead. Well done, just beautiful. Really beautiful..
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Sara, Sara, Sara! Sara wrote this :D.
Sara from my Classics group ... She of the fabulous, thoughful, wonderful reviews.
Haven't read it yet, looking forward to it. April, maybe?
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Sara, Sara, Sara! Sara wrote this :D.
Sara from my Classics group ... She of the fabulous, thoughful, wonderful reviews.
November 2, 2022
Being a mom who has lost a child, this book hit home in so many ways. Pretty much everything this author wrote, was everything I have felt over the years, but just never knew how to say it, or how to deal with it. After all the tears in this book, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Making this an overall excellent read. Very emotional, but so worth the time.
December 8, 2022
This book starts with an unimaginable tragedy. So much so that it tears a marriage completely to pieces. Delia Spencer just can’t recover from this horrendous loss. Her husband is much more capable of just moving on.
Delia decides she can’t go on like this with this tragedy fresh in her mind every day. She decides to move back to the small town of Franklin Georgia to try and recover. The house has been left to her by Nana, the woman who raised her and is in bad need of repair.
Through some unexpected occurrences with old friends and new, Delia slowly mends her broken heart. While no one completely recovers from earthshaking tragedy, Delia finds happiness. Very good book.
Delia decides she can’t go on like this with this tragedy fresh in her mind every day. She decides to move back to the small town of Franklin Georgia to try and recover. The house has been left to her by Nana, the woman who raised her and is in bad need of repair.
Through some unexpected occurrences with old friends and new, Delia slowly mends her broken heart. While no one completely recovers from earthshaking tragedy, Delia finds happiness. Very good book.
May 2, 2026
There is a very personal relationship between a reader and a book she is reading. I say the book, and I don’t say the author, because the reader doesn’t actually know the author. However, when a reader does know the author, however slightly or deeply, that knowledge is bound to influence the reading of the book. In this case, I have gotten to “know” the author of Moving On, through hundreds of shared posts and thoughtful interactions on Goodreads over the years. I have come to regard her as a friend, albeit a friend at a distance whom I have never met in person.
Moving On is a story about loss and recovery, the worst kind of loss possible, the death of a child, in this case the death of two daughters. I cannot say that I can even imagine a loss like this. As a mom with daughters, this is a calamity that is too horrific to contemplate. The recovery must be the hardest possible recovery. I hope this book came out of the author’s imagination. It is my sincere hope that this author did not write this book out of personal experience, but my heart goes out to her if this is the case.
With this in mind, I was reading with tears as I made my way through the first half of the book, and you know how blurry the words can get with tearful eyes. The thing about novels is that you can develop an empathy with the characters as you read. In this case, my empathy seemed extremely strong. It took me awhile to make my way because I had to take emotional breaks from the pathos of the book.
“I had been transported instantaneously from a life in which I could not find enough hours in the day to do everything, to one in which I counted endless individual minutes, hoping that the day would disappear.”
“I needed to remember and hold on to the times in my life that were so full of joy and wonder, the times that made life has meaning and purpose. If I failed to do that, I knew I would lose my mind.”
Thankfully, without giving away more than the book title does, I can say the book’s protagonist struggles but eventually emerges to to shake off some of the aftershocks of grief. The author stuck her book’s landing with the protagonist having hopeful current and future prospects of moving on.
So, did I enjoy the book? The book had a very comprehensible and straight forward structure which I always appreciate. I like stories told in first person because they seem to have more authenticity, and the honesty of this character’s experience comes through. The writing was very good, not overly flowery, but true to the point, which I had expected based on her posts. It is easier to take a difficult subject as long as the ending gives one hope. I would say this is a character-driven novel with characters beautifully and richly developed, believable in their voices and uniquely themselves. So, despite the kleenexes used, yes.
I give the book 4 stars. I hope Sara Steger will write more books. She is such a good writer with piercing insight into humanity that I could imagine that she could write many more wonderful novels and I would look forward to reading those stories, those characters.
Moving On is a story about loss and recovery, the worst kind of loss possible, the death of a child, in this case the death of two daughters. I cannot say that I can even imagine a loss like this. As a mom with daughters, this is a calamity that is too horrific to contemplate. The recovery must be the hardest possible recovery. I hope this book came out of the author’s imagination. It is my sincere hope that this author did not write this book out of personal experience, but my heart goes out to her if this is the case.
With this in mind, I was reading with tears as I made my way through the first half of the book, and you know how blurry the words can get with tearful eyes. The thing about novels is that you can develop an empathy with the characters as you read. In this case, my empathy seemed extremely strong. It took me awhile to make my way because I had to take emotional breaks from the pathos of the book.
“I had been transported instantaneously from a life in which I could not find enough hours in the day to do everything, to one in which I counted endless individual minutes, hoping that the day would disappear.”
“I needed to remember and hold on to the times in my life that were so full of joy and wonder, the times that made life has meaning and purpose. If I failed to do that, I knew I would lose my mind.”
Thankfully, without giving away more than the book title does, I can say the book’s protagonist struggles but eventually emerges to to shake off some of the aftershocks of grief. The author stuck her book’s landing with the protagonist having hopeful current and future prospects of moving on.
So, did I enjoy the book? The book had a very comprehensible and straight forward structure which I always appreciate. I like stories told in first person because they seem to have more authenticity, and the honesty of this character’s experience comes through. The writing was very good, not overly flowery, but true to the point, which I had expected based on her posts. It is easier to take a difficult subject as long as the ending gives one hope. I would say this is a character-driven novel with characters beautifully and richly developed, believable in their voices and uniquely themselves. So, despite the kleenexes used, yes.
I give the book 4 stars. I hope Sara Steger will write more books. She is such a good writer with piercing insight into humanity that I could imagine that she could write many more wonderful novels and I would look forward to reading those stories, those characters.
December 12, 2022
Grief is something we will all experience in life. I loved this book. I think it’s a beautiful debut. I highly recommend.
October 25, 2022
Recommended to me by my husband. Really great.
September 8, 2024
Losing a child has to be one of the most devastating of losses. It goes against all our expectations and hopes. Regardless of circumstances, there have to be countless "what-if" questions, and "if only" laments. This story brings the reader into the mind of a mother who is left bereft after such an unthinkable loss. We bear witness to the struggle to find solid ground, to care about anything that previously mattered, to find a way to "move on". There are no specific timelines for such movement, nor any clear paths. There is only one step in front of another until the surroundings begin to change, the inner state begins to respond, the weight begins to lift, sometimes so imperceptibly as to be unnoticed until you realize you can breathe again without constant pain. This mother found a path to healing in unexpected ways and places. I felt myself holding her hand and my breath at times as she surfaced for air.
January 1, 2023
Favorite book of the year!
I guess it is fitting that this is my last book of 2022. It packed an emotional punch and is my favorite book I read this year.
This book reminds me of why I love to read. It grabbed me from the first sentence and I felt immersed in this tragedy. I don’t even know how to describe it. I couldn’t stop reading and I felt as if I was experiencing it but, at the same time, cognizant that I was just an observer.
The writing was simultaneously simple yet so capable of wringing multiple emotions out of me with a single sentence. By simple, I mean deceptively so. It is not over-written. It is not trying too hard. It is clear and real and beautifully perfect.
It is rare that a book makes me cry. This book made me feel so much. It made me want to appreciate all the seemingly random connections that life brings. Life is truly beautiful in all its tragic, chaotic, loving, craziness. But I don’t know that I believe in randomness. And I believe in the power of kindness and connection. And this book helped heal something inside me - which doesn’t even make sense, but it did. It was that powerful.
My one criticism is this- the cover. I don’t know how these things work, or if an author even gets to choose the cover, but I found this cover almost off-putting. I understand it now and see that it fits with the story in many ways, but had I not had a very strong recommendation from a trusted source (thank you Elyse!), I would have never picked this book out. I just want others to find this book as I think it is worthwhile.
This was a heart-rending, realistic, life-affirming, beautiful book. It is one that will stay with me.
I guess it is fitting that this is my last book of 2022. It packed an emotional punch and is my favorite book I read this year.
This book reminds me of why I love to read. It grabbed me from the first sentence and I felt immersed in this tragedy. I don’t even know how to describe it. I couldn’t stop reading and I felt as if I was experiencing it but, at the same time, cognizant that I was just an observer.
The writing was simultaneously simple yet so capable of wringing multiple emotions out of me with a single sentence. By simple, I mean deceptively so. It is not over-written. It is not trying too hard. It is clear and real and beautifully perfect.
It is rare that a book makes me cry. This book made me feel so much. It made me want to appreciate all the seemingly random connections that life brings. Life is truly beautiful in all its tragic, chaotic, loving, craziness. But I don’t know that I believe in randomness. And I believe in the power of kindness and connection. And this book helped heal something inside me - which doesn’t even make sense, but it did. It was that powerful.
My one criticism is this- the cover. I don’t know how these things work, or if an author even gets to choose the cover, but I found this cover almost off-putting. I understand it now and see that it fits with the story in many ways, but had I not had a very strong recommendation from a trusted source (thank you Elyse!), I would have never picked this book out. I just want others to find this book as I think it is worthwhile.
This was a heart-rending, realistic, life-affirming, beautiful book. It is one that will stay with me.
November 25, 2020
Well written. Great story. Moved right along. Interesting characters. I was right there wondering what was going to happen next. Would love to read more by Sara Steger.
December 13, 2019
This story starts from the deepest darkest emotional hole that someone can find themselves. That emotional dark place comes from the mental turmoil of living through the death of your child, in this case a daughter. Sara Steger hits the reader with a description of grief so powerful you feel it as you read it. You may even shed a tear or two in the beginning and may not think you can continue reading such strong emotion. Fear not, the tone and words used are melodic and so smoothly crafted together that the reader is spellbound. You just keep reading. As much as your heart is squeezed, you find yourself needing to learn, can this poor mother survive this much hurt and anguish.
Moving on is crafted in three parts. The first part, as mentioned, is living through the grief of death so deep you wonder if you can continue to breathe. The second part is living through the twilight of healing. It’s that period of time when the mind numbing pain of grief lessons a little. You are no longer choked trying to breath and you understand that your heart will continue to beat, even if you aren’t sure you want it to. For Delia, our protagonist, the healing starts when she befriends a stray dog. This simple subtle act starts her on her on the path of moving on. The next change to her life happens when she takes on the responsibility of a stray young girl. With others now needing Delia, her grief and pain are becoming easier to bear, she’s healing.
Sara takes us on a journey of deep emotional turmoil, through the twilight of acceptance and recovery, to the daybreak of a life that has moved on from the sorrow of death. Delia will carry the memories of her past forever, but now has room in her heart to continue living. The past will never be forgotten but the future can now be faced, and happiness will no longer be a crime against her beloved memories.
This book is written by a southern author, and takes place in a southern setting. The story is written with grace, style, and wit. The characters are rich and full, just what one expects from great southern writers.
I heartily recommend this, it is well worth reading.
Moving on is crafted in three parts. The first part, as mentioned, is living through the grief of death so deep you wonder if you can continue to breathe. The second part is living through the twilight of healing. It’s that period of time when the mind numbing pain of grief lessons a little. You are no longer choked trying to breath and you understand that your heart will continue to beat, even if you aren’t sure you want it to. For Delia, our protagonist, the healing starts when she befriends a stray dog. This simple subtle act starts her on her on the path of moving on. The next change to her life happens when she takes on the responsibility of a stray young girl. With others now needing Delia, her grief and pain are becoming easier to bear, she’s healing.
Sara takes us on a journey of deep emotional turmoil, through the twilight of acceptance and recovery, to the daybreak of a life that has moved on from the sorrow of death. Delia will carry the memories of her past forever, but now has room in her heart to continue living. The past will never be forgotten but the future can now be faced, and happiness will no longer be a crime against her beloved memories.
This book is written by a southern author, and takes place in a southern setting. The story is written with grace, style, and wit. The characters are rich and full, just what one expects from great southern writers.
I heartily recommend this, it is well worth reading.
September 1, 2016
A powerfully moving story about a mother's devastating loss and bereavement, and her eventual healing. Sara Steger writes about a difficult subject with compassion and understanding, offering hope to the reader as her protagonist learns to navigate life beyond the dark chasm of grief.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
February 25, 2026
beautiful! please write more
July 23, 2025
All I can say is -- Wow! I loved this one so much! I have meant to read it for quite a while, since Sara is one of my good friends here on Goodreads. I'm so glad I finally got to it! It was SO worth it!
It deals with a family in which the two teenage daughters are involved in a terrible car accident and the mother blames herself for what happened. How can she go on after this horrific tragedy? How can her marriage survive? Can life ever have any joy again? Well, just read this one and find out! It really does show that life takes so many twists and turns, and though you might want to -- you should never give up!
One of the main impressions this book had on me is that once you start thinking of others and you step away from your own fearful thoughts and problems, you are taken out of yourself and given a different view of your life, which makes it so much more meaningful.
Again, Wow! This one was that good :)
It deals with a family in which the two teenage daughters are involved in a terrible car accident and the mother blames herself for what happened. How can she go on after this horrific tragedy? How can her marriage survive? Can life ever have any joy again? Well, just read this one and find out! It really does show that life takes so many twists and turns, and though you might want to -- you should never give up!
One of the main impressions this book had on me is that once you start thinking of others and you step away from your own fearful thoughts and problems, you are taken out of yourself and given a different view of your life, which makes it so much more meaningful.
Again, Wow! This one was that good :)
May 21, 2025
"What a strange thing time was. It plodded behind you and nipped at your heels. It raced ahead of you and promised what it could never deliver. Did one ever live in real time, I wondered? Weren’t we always wishing for either the past or the future? At sixteen, we yearn to be twenty-one; at twenty-five we are afraid to be thirty; at forty, thirty takes on the luster of lost youth; and through it all we reach forward or back for what we wish to own or for what we once owned but can now never have."
Read
February 7, 2023Don't be put off by the relatively slow, seemingly neverending grief at the beginning of this book. It's a necessary reality. The MC does eventually move on and start participating in life again, and i loved it.
April 6, 2026
Moving On is a beautiful and affecting novel about grief, regret, and yes, moving on. The sense of loss here and yearning are palpable. I recommended this one to my book club! Sara Steger, I hope you are at work on your next novel.
July 9, 2023
Sara Steger’s novel is divided into three parts:
I. Lost
Delia Spencer was happily married and had two daughters, until a rainy night when a tragic automobile accident claimed her children, and her marriage.
******
“There were no more morning kisses, and Eddie never mentioned children again. In truth, we talked about little that mattered after that. I simply shut down, and Eddie drifted away.”
******
Well meaning friends told her that she had to “move on,” but how could she? How could she move on after losing her two main reasons for living? How could she move on when she felt that doing so would be a violation of the love that she felt for her loved ones?
Instead she found it difficult to function because life was too much, it was too empty, the grief was too overpowering, and she was wracked with a sense of guilt that she had caused her daughters’ deaths.
II. Past
When Delia finds no answers in her life with her husband or her life in Richmond, she decides to move to a farm near Franklin, Georgia that she had inherited from her Nana, who had raised Delia after her mother died at age twenty-seven in a boating accident when Delia was only six-years old.
Nana, however, had a different take on matters when Delia voiced her complaints:
Delia discovers that Nana, as usual, was right all along.
III. On to the Future
What happens in the third part of the story will be left unsaid by me, because that would be giving too much away. My advice is that you read the book and discover for yourself how Delia’s story ends.
******
I joined Goodreads in 2014. A few years later I became aware of Sara’s reviews. They were beautifully written without a wasted word, and with perfect punctuation.
At some point I sent a request for friendship and she accepted. Over the ensuing years we read each other’s reviews and exchanged comments and I kept thinking to myself: She could be – should be – a writer.
It was only a short while ago that I discovered that she was a writer, that she had published her debut novel in 2014. But since that was the year I joined Goodreads I didn’t know very many people and thus was unaware of her and her novel.
It was only at the end of this past year when her book was re-issued and that Sara posted an author’s page, that I discovered her book. I immediately ordered a copy and am glad that I did. Now I know why her reviews are so well-written.
******
And by the way -
--
Kudos to Sara for referencing Andy Taylor and Fats Domino; Johnny Mathis and Johnny Mercer; Connie Francis and Brenda Lee; and a big batch of bonus points for her mention of Jimmy Clanton (‘just a dream, just a dream’).
I. Lost
I had always believed that families were indestructible. They were the foundation on which everyone built their lives. Children saw you through old age and brought you other children who wore your nose or eyes or that horrible cowlick in your hair. Stories were written, volumes in fact, about the strength of the family and its ability to endure generation to generation through millennia. There was a secret truth, however, that only a few of us ever truly grasped. Families crumbled as easily as gingerbread. No one ever told you that.
Delia Spencer was happily married and had two daughters, until a rainy night when a tragic automobile accident claimed her children, and her marriage.
******
“There were no more morning kisses, and Eddie never mentioned children again. In truth, we talked about little that mattered after that. I simply shut down, and Eddie drifted away.”
******
Well meaning friends told her that she had to “move on,” but how could she? How could she move on after losing her two main reasons for living? How could she move on when she felt that doing so would be a violation of the love that she felt for her loved ones?
Instead she found it difficult to function because life was too much, it was too empty, the grief was too overpowering, and she was wracked with a sense of guilt that she had caused her daughters’ deaths.
II. Past
When Delia finds no answers in her life with her husband or her life in Richmond, she decides to move to a farm near Franklin, Georgia that she had inherited from her Nana, who had raised Delia after her mother died at age twenty-seven in a boating accident when Delia was only six-years old.
This was the part of a small town that I detested, the interconnected part. The anonymity of a large city was unquestionably more comfortable at times. In Franklin everyone knew your business, sometimes before you did…. Whenever I stepped out of line when I was a kid, Nana knew about my misbehavior before I even got home.
Nana, however, had a different take on matters when Delia voiced her complaints:
There’s a time in life when you are glad for having somebody watching out for you. Nobody cares what happens to you in the city, but here in Franklin folks are interested in everything you do. You can fault people for being nosy, sweetie, but if you fall off a tractor in Franklin, you won’t lay in your field hurting for very long.
Delia discovers that Nana, as usual, was right all along.
III. On to the Future
What happens in the third part of the story will be left unsaid by me, because that would be giving too much away. My advice is that you read the book and discover for yourself how Delia’s story ends.
******
I joined Goodreads in 2014. A few years later I became aware of Sara’s reviews. They were beautifully written without a wasted word, and with perfect punctuation.
At some point I sent a request for friendship and she accepted. Over the ensuing years we read each other’s reviews and exchanged comments and I kept thinking to myself: She could be – should be – a writer.
It was only a short while ago that I discovered that she was a writer, that she had published her debut novel in 2014. But since that was the year I joined Goodreads I didn’t know very many people and thus was unaware of her and her novel.
It was only at the end of this past year when her book was re-issued and that Sara posted an author’s page, that I discovered her book. I immediately ordered a copy and am glad that I did. Now I know why her reviews are so well-written.
******
And by the way -
--
Kudos to Sara for referencing Andy Taylor and Fats Domino; Johnny Mathis and Johnny Mercer; Connie Francis and Brenda Lee; and a big batch of bonus points for her mention of Jimmy Clanton (‘just a dream, just a dream’).
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