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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
4.5 A must-read. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
I can appreciate that this book is well written, but it's just not my cup of tea. Dark, gritty, and unsettling, the book doesn't end with any sense of redemption or hope. The setting is moody and vivid, but the author seems to get too caught up in minor details that the overarching plot gets lost. (Much of the book takes place in a car, and there is so.much.vomit.) Yet the grandmother's cancer, which takes center stage at the end of the book, is only randomly mentioned here and there through the first 2/3 of the book. The fantastical element fit the setting, but wasn't explained very well.
I really enjoyed this book. I listened to it as an audiobook with a full cast narrating. I thought the ghosts and animals added a very interesting layer to this family’s story. My favorite character was Jojo. I loved the relationships he had with his grandfather and his baby sister. I loved the ending. This book was beautifully written and a really enjoyable read. I couldn’t wait to get back to it each day.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
"Sometimes I think it done changed. And then I sleep and wake up, and it ain't changed none."
This is a tough, bleak, and incredibly haunting read, but a really worthwhile one. It explores themes of racism, trauma, addiction, and complex (and at times abusive) familial relationships with such brutal honesty but also with clear compassion, and my heart just absolutely broke for so many of the characters throughout.
I struggled a bit to follow some of the ghostly elements of the story at times, but by the end I did see the merit of their inclusion and how they added to the narrative and its various messages.
I'd definitely recommend this if you're at all intrigued, though do be aware of the many content warnings - it's obviously not going to be a breezy read off the bat, but there's so much more in here than you'd immediately expect. I'd also say that it doesn't matter if you haven't read the earlier books in the series (that I didn't realise existed until I'd already started reading) as this is very much a standalone and I didn't feel as if I was missing anything by jumping in at book three.
This is a tough, bleak, and incredibly haunting read, but a really worthwhile one. It explores themes of racism, trauma, addiction, and complex (and at times abusive) familial relationships with such brutal honesty but also with clear compassion, and my heart just absolutely broke for so many of the characters throughout.
I struggled a bit to follow some of the ghostly elements of the story at times, but by the end I did see the merit of their inclusion and how they added to the narrative and its various messages.
I'd definitely recommend this if you're at all intrigued, though do be aware of the many content warnings - it's obviously not going to be a breezy read off the bat, but there's so much more in here than you'd immediately expect. I'd also say that it doesn't matter if you haven't read the earlier books in the series (that I didn't realise existed until I'd already started reading) as this is very much a standalone and I didn't feel as if I was missing anything by jumping in at book three.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Racism, Vomit, Police brutality, Murder
Moderate: Cancer, Blood
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm just not entirely sure why this book didn't land for me. It took me forever to get through this because I just never felt super motivated to continue with it, and I even had to entirely restart it because I went too long without reading it. I usually love slow moving character studies, but this felt a but more like a static character study. It doesn't feel like any of the characters grew in this story, but instead just went through more and more trauma. I read other reviews that said that the narrative voices all sounded identical, and I do think that listening to it as an audiobook really helped eliminate that problem. The narrators were kind of the highlight of this reading experience for me, except for the fact that they narrated in WILDLY different speeds, which made it hard to settle in on a speed to listen. The prose itself in this story was absolutely beautiful, so I would be interested in reading more from this author, but in general I'm just glad this book is behind me so I can move on to different things.
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes