I don't know if it's my tastes or the content being published more now but I've been reading SO many books in the past year involving religious institutions that are actually pretty analytical of them. Some more than others but still a pretty interesting shift.

The switching of POVs between our alive character and our dead character didn't totally work for me all the time. They were going through a lot of similar things but I didn't find their voices to be all that different from each other. At times I forgot which of them I was reading for a few lines. I had to pause and reread.

The strongest take away for me was the role of women of the time. Frankie was by far the most interesting and likable character in the book. Then there's Toni, the nuns, Frankie's step mother, her own mother and then our less than alive friend. They all represented pretty much all of the options women had: mental hospital, find a husband and keep em for survival, be boy crazy, shunned and disowned for being out of social norms. It's pretty depressing but interesting really. Frankie & Toni's dad was a particularly manipulative piece of garbage but he did seem to fit the time and social norms sadly.

The ending was abrupt and a bit chaotic but it honestly strengthened the book for me. Frankie and Toni's ending being clean and organized wouldn't have fit this whole book. I liked that there was that final show down between them and everyone else.