Such a beautiful yet harrowing story. At times, the lessons (mainly one big one) the characters were supposed to learn from this monstrous tale became redundant and illicited a couple of raised eye rolls. Really. I found myself wanting to reach into the pages and shake everyone and yell "STOP DOING THIS PLEASE." But once they figured it out, it was done quite beautifully. The main plot conflict wrapped up rather suddenly and quickly, but I don't mind this so much, as this is clearly a more character-driven narrative that is only propelled by the monster of the plot. Lots of tears and emotions in this one and beautiful prose. Looking forward to more from this author in the future!