Wow. This book was just....wow.

First off just to clear any doubt about here I stand on this, it is a thriller. It's a social commentary thriller but it's still a thriller. While I don't feel that everyone saying it's not one is just because it is written by and about a PoC, I do feel that a good majority of the naysayers do feel this way. In theory it could be because they can't see themselves in the position of either Sydney or Theo (who is a white man btw) for whatever reason and so it didn't thrill them or scare them which is why they don't consider it one. But guess what? Just because you can't relate to it does not negate it from being a thriller. Not everyone say themselves in the position of what's-her-face in Gone Girl or wanted to. But it's still classified as a thriller.

I digress.

I was highly anxious reading this book. Like at some points I had to make myself put it down because I was getting so anxious and angry. Because I could see something like this happening in a marginalized community. I mean, it's happened before to be frank so it stands to reason it could happen again.

It also plays with the idea of the only type of unreliable narrator which is one who may be unreliable but not on purpose. It's like they think they're remembering and relaying correctly but they're not. It did a fine walk on that and I appreciated it. Also I saw a lot of myself in Sydney, even though I'll honestly admit it took me awhile to warm up to her. I'm not as confrontational as she is, but I have the same anxiety, the same paranoia, the same crushing feeling of the weight of the world. Theo grew on me too although that took longer. One thing about being in his PoV is that you saw his unconscious biases rear its ugly head BUT you also saw him recognizing that he had that. Which is growth. It may be a baby step but those are still movements.

There are so many levels and undertones here and things that are still accurate today. Such as someone claiming they're not racist and having a picture of Michelle Obama in their living room (which was trifling as hell btw) but use slurs on PoCs and threaten to call the police at every perceived slight (not threat). Or the person who is in an interracial relationship and has biracial children, but is still willing to commit all types of atrocities towards marginalized people. Someone could write countless papers on it and I could seriously see this being a study in sociology classes in the future. As well as it should since damn...his was a good book. It's not going to be for everyone though and some people will be very uncomfortable reading it. Hell, you're suppose to be. But it was still a damned good book and worth the wait for me.

CW/TW for racism, cheating (off page), vermin and bugs (yes there should be warnings for these).