This is one of those books that I enjoyed, but I'm not sure how much I would recommend. Just in general, I didn't find it particularly well written. In fact it mostly seemed overwritten. Characters would go on and on about stuff like- the cavity within her that opened all those years before. (Not actually a direct quote, but the way it felt. I distinctly remember her using cavity in that context in a strange way.) Some of the overwrought descriptions felt like they should have worked, or at least could have worked in a different context. Like I wanted to enjoy them because I got what Badani was going for, but it never quite hit the target for me.

It also felt like it bordered on melodrama a lot of the time. It wasn't so much the amount of trauma or bad things that happened, but rather the way they happened. Two characters were blissfully happy in a marriage and then one lied and all of a sudden there were lawyers and divorce papers without even a conversation. Like that's not how that works? How would you literally not even have a conversation with your spouse before drawing up the divorce papers? It was absurd. And it wasn't just that one example. There were tons of things in the book that felt like that. So much of it was really well crafted, and then there would be these jarring moments of characters making ridiculous leaps in two sentences that felt so over the top.

I also found it jarring that the book switched between 3rd POV and 1st POV. Two characters told their chapters exclusively in first and the other two exclusively in third. I've seen it before in books and I'm never a fan. It always feels like I need an adjustment period every time I switch between them instead of flowing through the story.

I also immediately knew the twists. All the major twists I guessed absurdly early on in a way that made me a bit annoyed. I don't mind in thrillers, but for books like this I'd rather it be more about the characters than the twist ending. It seems like it loses something by focusing on such a shallow element of the storytelling when there's more going on.

Which is a whole lot of negative thoughts for a four star book. It sounds a bit silly at this point to say I'm rating this book four stars when I am so stingy in my reviews. But I can't lie. I may not have thought this book was good, but it landed emotionally for me. Maybe I read it at the right time and just needed a book like this now, but I'm inclined to think it was always going to make me cry. For all its flaws, I really don't care if I can feel for the characters and get invested in the story. I want a book that will suck me in and not let go, and this one did that. I flew through it so fast and can't remember the last time I stayed up past midnight to finish a book.

I'll forgive just about anything for a book that lands emotionally. I read because I want to care and this book made me care a whole lot.

So I'm not sure that I would recommend this to many people and I do understand the negative reviews, but it was for me. Tug on my heartstrings a bit and I'm very easily won over.