I wish I had liked this book more than I did. I felt that there were a lot of topics covered that I could relate to, such as being ashamed of where you come from, your parents, and challenges of poverty that you just cannot control. It also explored the challenges of refusing to come of age until you have no other choice but to accept it. 

The parts I struggled with this book were mainly that it felt too bogged down by unnecessary, repetitive scenes of partying and drugs. I thought that, although beautiful, the writing style chose to focus too much on telling us what the characters were feeling instead of showing us through conversations. I read someone state that it felt like as the reader I was ready to move on, but Nila was stuck in this almost endless loop. I can also see the other side of it, that even when we are ready for others to move on, they themselves cannot. Also one small gripe I have with this, is that it's labeled LGBTQ+ and I was interesting in reading how she would navigate this, but it's pretty much summed up in one chapter only to be brought up again momentarily at the very end. 

I think that we spend too much time exploring the turmoil of Nila's coming of age, but not enough time getting to enjoy her actually getting to enjoy the start of her life after. I was felt feeling overall disappointed and just glad it's over.