This book is so crushingly sad. Like heavy trigger warnings for pretty much everything you can think of going in, but it's well worth the read.

The writing is absolutely stunning. It's so beautifully captured and the descriptions and context make it feel so real and hit so close to home. The characters are also quite stunning. Apart from Henry, who never really felt as fleshed out as he could have been, they were all fantastic.

I wish it had focused a little more on the school explosion because it's such a big event just to exist as a catalyst for an entirely different climax, but even that was well done in the limited space it was given. It hit me as a reader so hard and felt really wonderful. I was reading this at work and trying not to look too upset.

Where it lost me just a little was the climax. It wasn't so much what happened, but the way it was written. At a point it stopped feeling real. I stopped connecting to it. I liked that Perez wasn't afraid to make this book brutal and real, and I like a good tragic ending that has you leaving the book feeling like you've been punched in the gut, but I mostly felt kind of empty. The explosion at the school made me want to cry. The showdown with Wash's family made me anxious. But the climax itself left me wanting something different. I wanted it to hurt more than it did.

But overall, fantastic book. I understand why this receives the hype it does. It's such a grueling look at racism and sexism that doesn't pull punches to save the reader's feelings. If you also like getting punched by a book (especially one as spectacularly written as this), I recommend picking this up.