I have so many complex feelings about this book.
 
 On one hand I thought it was very beautifully and emotively written. It doesn't shy away from the horrors of the depression era, but it also isn't trauma porn (unlike Kristen Hannah's 'Four Winds'). It shows life still going on and highlights the moments of hope and wonder without being cheesy.
 
 I also thought all of the librarian content was really interesting, and I enjoyed learning about it. 
 
 HOWEVER, this book had one huge problem for me, and that was the discussion about race (or rather the lack thereof).
 
 When I first started the book, I thought the blue-skinned characters were a fantasy element. I like to go into novels blind, and not read blurbs or summaries, so I didn't find out that this was a real medical condition until just over half-way through the book. This definitely didn't help my misgivings around race in the story, and I think it should have been made clear a LOT earlier that this was a real medical condition and not something made up.
 
 Even knowing about the blue-condition being real, I still felt that the inclusion of it was just an excuse for a white person wanting to talk about race/racism, but not wanting to write from a black character's point of view. In parts the writing even seemed to diminish the lived experiences of black people - for example at one point Cussy thinks of a black character 'Maybe there was opportunity and blessings for her color, but I'd never once seen one for mine.' Like SORRY? This happened on other occasions as well, and just seemed COMPLETELTY unnecessary. You can portray your character as having a hard life without diminishing other people's experiences. Of course, if Cussy was meant to be a racist character, this would be different, but SHE WASN'T. 
 
 To make things worse, even though many of Cussy's experiences are described as being identical to those of black people in America, none of her experiences were ONCE compared to those of a black person. Almost as if the (white) author thinks she's creating these experiences herself. 
 
 There is NO discussion of race in the entire book, which I think is heavily remiss of the author. Though the blue-condition does change skin colour, it isn't anything about race. It's also seen that Cussy can change her skin to white if she wants to, but again, no links or discussions are had between this and race.
 
 Also, there is only ONE black character in the entire book?? And she's barely in it, but of course is one of Cussy's best friends. 
 
 It just seems for a book that relies SO heavily on the lived experiences of black people, there should be more of a discussion about race, and NO diminishing of black people's lived experiences. 
 
 Also, some other things that got on my nerves:
 
 - There's a passage where the author just decided to include some casual fat-shaming, without including any commentary/discussion on it
 - Cussy keeps saying she's the 'last blue' but her dad is alive and blue??
 - The baby smiled literally the first day it was born????
 - The n-word is used multiple times at the end of the book for absolutely no reason. This was especially weird for a book with little to no other swearing, and just felt like the author thought she had an excuse/pass to use it and ran with it. 
 
 Overall, I'm really sad this book had so many (or one huge) issue/s. I actually really enjoyed the author's writing and the bulk of the story. But I just can't overlook the issues with race in it.