In all honesty, I find it hard to talk about this book, because it's always hard for me to talk about grief. And grief is what this entire story is centered on: the pain and numbness of losing someone, sorting through the mess they left behind in an attempt to force things into making sense, picking up the pieces of yourself every morning only to find yourself falling apart again. And then there are all these other people grieving around you, too, in their own ways that you can't comprehend; and there are others who are moving on with their lives, and that's something you can comprehend even less. Worst of all, the problems that were there before grief came in still remain, too; still demand sorting out. Life as you knew it is over; life in general has the audacity to go on.

I'm of the opinion that grief is one of the most confusing, incomprehensible, messed-up feelings a human can experience, and this book really nails it. It does a great job showing the rocky journey toward feeling ready to heal.

There were some minor flaws/nitpicks here when it came to writing and characterization that took me out of the story a little; the same things that I struggled a bit when I read the author's first novel. Some of the dialogue doesn't quite feel natural, some sentences get repetitive, that kind of stuff. However, these things didn't really take away from the sheer power of the story.