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A review by leciurro
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself grapples with the dissociative, nebulous, perilous sentence of living after the death of a spouse. I have never experienced this, nor have I ever had to raise a child (let alone on my own), but Crane's writing threw me into Kris, the main character's, life. The loss, and anger, and grief, and all the other words that can't come close to describing how one might feel after losing a loved one were made real. Funnily enough, Crane also made it feel like I was Beau, Kris's dead wife, checking in on my family over the years.
I kept asking myself when the additional shadows story line would make more sense. At times it felt out of place, like I was reading a story that could exist in our world until the additional shadows would come back again and I felt like I was reading an entirely different story. It wasn't until the end that it clicked and I realized what this element added to the story.
I Keep My Exoskeletons to myself very explicitly juxtaposes the ideas (and actions) of justice and forgiveness. The use of the physical marker of additional shadows in Crane's world turns the sometimes invisible feelings of regret into something tangible. While Kris's shadow does not have anything to do with Beau's death, it is used as another way to show how difficult it is to forgive ourselves for our past. These shadows also offer a different perspective to how individuals and communities should and should not tackle the task of restorative justice.
This is a tragically beautiful read, one I'm glad to have picked up in the Summer rather than its January release.
I kept asking myself when the additional shadows story line would make more sense. At times it felt out of place, like I was reading a story that could exist in our world until the additional shadows would come back again and I felt like I was reading an entirely different story. It wasn't until the end that it clicked and I realized what this element added to the story.
I Keep My Exoskeletons to myself very explicitly juxtaposes the ideas (and actions) of justice and forgiveness. The use of the physical marker of additional shadows in Crane's world turns the sometimes invisible feelings of regret into something tangible. While Kris's shadow does not have anything to do with Beau's death, it is used as another way to show how difficult it is to forgive ourselves for our past. These shadows also offer a different perspective to how individuals and communities should and should not tackle the task of restorative justice.
This is a tragically beautiful read, one I'm glad to have picked up in the Summer rather than its January release.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, and Death of parent