FULL DISCLOSURE Rebecca is a friend of mine (though I got this ARC from NetGalley) and I was a little nervous to read this book because what if I didn't like it and I'd just have to pretend like I never got around to reading it I guess?!

But luckily that was NOT the case. It got off to a little bit of a slow start for me but once Rose gets to Lotus Valley I was captivated. This is such a beautiful, magical exploration of grief and trauma. It reminded me a little of Night Vale but like...less quirky or whatever.

Gorgeous and surprising.

Spoiler

Also honestly I was pleasantly surprised because I really thought Rose's secret trauma w/r/t Nick was going to turn out to be sexual assault, which is of course traumatic and of course something a lot of people experience, but IDK it was sort of...nice??? that it actually wasn't that. Also I appreciated that it's a book about the trauma of the death of a friend rather than a romantic relationship or whatever--which, again, is also obviously a real trauma that affects people but it's nice to have, you know, variety in traumas represented in literature.