Scan barcode
lak98's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I'd recently moved to San Francisco, so was interested in a book to learn more about the city and the unhoused populations here. It's a good book for those reasons but was disappointing overall. There was hardly any plot (the murder is really a side story that randomly has salience but most of the book is just the characters' day-to-day lives). I'm usually ok with character-driven books, but the characters here were not well developed. Of the four main characters, two seemed practically interchangeable. All characters besides Maddy seem one-dimensional, and it's even hard to feel invested in Maddy's characters because she's so closed off, even in her own narration. While the book had some thought-provoking moments and well-written lines, it was overall a bit of a slog to get through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Murder, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, and Animal death
Minor: Pedophilia
More...