Reviews

While I will admit, it did take me some time to actually "get into" the book; it made up for that in the end. This book will leave you asking questions about your own life and family. What hidden secrets are there that had they not occurred would have altered the very life you live. I am so glad I stuck with it and finished the book, for the end touched me in a way that I never thought a book could do.

"Before that she hadn’t realized how fragile happiness was, how if you were careless, you could knock it over and shatter it.”

miorinsa's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Depressing tale about parents who had to give up on their dreams and instead put their expectations on their favorite of three children. Haunting journey about the dangers of not being true to yourself.

Content Warnings

laurendeen's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

4.5

moni_nels's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

boastybooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

kiriwho's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Almost a DNF at 50% but powered through by increasing the speed to x1.5.
*spoilers ahead*

Deep family drama (and generational trauma I suppose) seems to not be my genre since I also felt a little bored with this authors other book, Little Fires Everywhere. I think there were 2 big issues for me. First, I went in completely blind and the beginning chapter
set me up to think this was gonna be a murder mystery, possibly thriller. My mistake.

The first half of the book has almost nothing to do with the death of Lydia and instead focuses on the parents upbringing. All the bullshit they went through as kids etc. This is a generational family drama revoling around the issues of interracial marriage and racism in a small town during the 1960s and 70s, which in itself is actually very interesting and well done. It does a beautiful job of setting up why the parents act as they do and then why they proceed to emotionally scar their children.

However, this brings me to my second issue and that is the characters don't talk to each other. I suppose the title of the book really does nail home the point. They do not tell each other *anything.* One of the biggest plot points is Marilyn choosing to abandon her family without saying a single word. She literally calls them and doesn't say anything while on the phone. The narration doesn't even let you know if she ever even tells them where she went? Everyone just chooses to leave a lot of things unsaid. This may be be realistic I suppose, and again very on point for the title, but as a reader I was just left frustrated.

deirdre16's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Devastating and felt like I could only half breathe at times, but unbelievably well written story.

More...