Not the point, but I was so pleased with the depiction of autism in this book. It is a very specific neurotype, but it was excellent. And Tingle also hit the precise notes of not making this a story about autism while still recognizing that autistic main characters will alter the progression of the story because of who they are and how they live in the world. The story is different because of who Rose is. It also sticks every landing.
So does the rest of the book. In news that surprises no one, Tingle is a very good writer and knows how to tell a story with a moral.
It's interesting that the two genres that are most moralizing in that they engage with reward and punishment most explicitly are horror and romance. (Which is often why I have a lot of feelings about who I read in both genres; they are hard books to enjoy if your morals and the author's are at odds.) Naturally Tingle writes both. This is very much a horror story in that vein, reifying the horrors that the religious community visits on their queer kids and telling a story of what it takes to exorcise your demons. It's such a good premise and Tingle gets it.