I had to really sit with this book for a while to decide how I felt about it. I'll be completely honest, it was a lot to process, and I had to get a friend to read it after me to see someone else's feelings of it also.
I was torn between its beauty, its strangeness, and its sadness.
I instantly fell in love with the art style and illustrations. They are completely filled with intricate nuances and hidden gems that you don't see on first glance; the different textures overlapping in a kind of watercolour-collages reminded me of Jeannie Baker.

The opening page definitely threw me off at first. I understood its poetic nature, but it felt like a strange way to start the story. Looking retrospectively however, I'd say it fits the book pretty perfectly.

Spoilers from here:
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I was not prepared nor expecting the death of her grandfather. I sat on that page for a solid minute. There was just something so honest and blunt and beautiful about both the wording and the art on that page. It felt so purposefully poignant and different: Compared to the rest of the book so far that had been dedicated to the speedy, upbeat characters of Maia and her grandmother, even after her fall, it felt like a snippet of her grandfather's story. The change in the pace felt like a small piece of him and his personality that didn't truly belong here but fully deserved a space. I'm not sure what the specific intentions were of the authors but wow.

I'm still a little confused overall - something about the book as a whole just felt slightly odd or different, and the ending didn't really feel like an ending either. But I do know for certain that it was a 5 star read. I'd almost compare it to an abstract piece of art that I know looks beautiful to my eyes, but my brain isn't 100% sure what to think.
Although as with art, I guess that might just be part of the journey.