I picked it up because the premise was intriguing but the author's story-telling feels disingenuous. It felt like I was fed a lot of information about emotions and grief and loss, but I was not invested enough in Ismael's character. The characters appear really flat as well. The main protagonist experiences racism in his workplace but the way racism was described was so mechanical, it just felt like the author was voyeuristic in his entire experience and could not write out how racism is indeed truly harmful to non-Whites in Australia.. you know, like what the book premise is about.  

There were several lines in the book that felt so odd. On page 28, "when (Ismael's grandmother) bent over to collect his bowl. he could see them hanging, pendulously, browned by the sun, the enormous dark brown nipples that had given suck to his mother protruding". Like.. what is this even supposed to be about? What is this information for? 

Lastly, this book is completely disorganized and littered with many poor chapter pacing and sorting. There were many awkward transitions, specifically the ones that introduce a side character's backstory. I love character study driven stories but this.. this was just messy. It was difficult to follow through because the flow felt inorganic.