The Moon Up Pack by Kristan Higgins is a beautiful novel that tells a story about grief, loss, and love. It explores how to start life again when love is too far away and how to pick up the pieces of your life.
The tragic and unexpected diagnosis of a terminal illness has crashed down upon the happy lives of Lauren and Joshua, a newly married couple who are madly in love and perfect for each other. The story follows Lauren and Joshua in Park, where she has been told that she only has 3-5 years to live.
Joshua or someone from Lauren to her father, each chapter of the novel provides us with either a correspondence from Lauren to Joshua. She also expresses her desire to be reunited with her father in the afterlife. She confides in him about her fears, her sadness regarding leaving Joshua alone, and their lack of children, among other things. Her intention in doing so is to assist him in better coping with her demise and to encourage him to resume living his life. It is only after Lauren’s passing that we truly come to understand her, as she has spent much of her final months composing letters for Joshua to read in the months following her death. Within the initial few pages of the book, Lauren passes away and we are introduced to Joshua, the grieving widower. What captivated me the most about this novel is how Higgins opts to reveal the story of Joshua and Lauren.
I fell in love with both Joshua and Lauren as I read these letters, and I especially loved the glimpses of their life together, which were accompanied by many flashbacks that provided Joshua’s and Lauren’s loved ones. It’s easy to see why Joshua loved her so much; she is such a beautiful soul. I am devastated by how much I loved her, and it’s easy to see why. I loved reading these letters, as they read like flashbacks that were quite funny at times, and the explicit instructions she gave him made it fully expected for him to follow simple things she liked, like tasks challenging the grocery store or asking a woman out on a date because he loved her so much.
This is a story that will leave you with a heart full of love and it will also surprise you with some humorous moments, but it is a story that will make your eyes cry, so keep your tissues handy. It gave me hope that there is a way to move forward after tragedy, but at the same time, it broke my heart into a million pieces.