2022: top notch fiction to end the year on

I plowed through this book in about 48 hours to finish by the end of 2022, and although I did put some pressure on myself to finish, I so thoroughly enjoyed the journey. It gave me very similar vibes to my experience with The Vanishing Half. Maybe I was simply primed by both books involving the name Bennett, but they both explored passing as white and how two siblings had different reactions to the same childhood experiences. Both are excellent family dramas with worlds that I could have spent much more time exploring.

I loved the growth in the relationships between the characters and the ocean and how it evolved throughout the generations. Depending on the location they were living, the characters were either heavily into swimming or surfing, but they were always connected to the ocean (which I loved reading about). Wilkerson also spent a lot of the book diving into the push and pull of where you are from versus where you live. Both generations of characters ended up spending the majority of their adult lives away from where they were born, and it was super interesting to see how that influenced them, in both big and small ways.

"Because the people you loved were part of your identity, too. Perhaps the biggest part."