When a 14-year-old girl is raped in the Texas town of Odessa during an oil boom, it sets off a ripple effect felt by women of all different walks of life in the town. Wetmore's work is a portrait of several of these women, from the more old-fashioned to the more progressive, with the event and its aftermath revealing a lot about their own beliefs, struggles, and insecurities. Wetmore's writing is beautiful and she paints a picture of what it is like to be a white woman in Texas in the 1970s. I was in awe of these women and the things that they have overcome in the story. The alternation between the different POVs lent an almost short-story feel to the book (in fact, two of the chapters were based on previously-published short stories). The changes in narrative style, especially with Karla's chapter, were particularly poignant as well, suited to the story being told in each chapter.

However, I found myself feeling a bit uncomfortable with the character of Gloria/Glory, the 14-year-old Mexican-American girl whose rape was the catalyst for all the novel's events. On the one hand, having her be of Mexican descent allowed Wetmore to explore the racial politics of Odessa through the way in which different people reacted to her assault. It was an interesting foil to today, where many might still believe that a girl was 'asking for it' just because she was of a certain heritage. At the same time, I wanted Glory to be more of a voice throughout the book and I was uncomfortable with the fact that she only appears a couple of times as a main character, while also being used as a catalyst for exploring all of these other (white) women's problems. I'm still struggling to fully articulate this discomfort, so for now I'm just leaving it out there. I wanted more from Glory's voice and about her reactions to what happened to her and less other people's reactions to what happened.

So for now, my rating stands as 3.5ish stars. Beautifully written book but left me with a bit of an off feeling all the same.

TW: Sexual assault; domestic violence; mentions of miscarriage; racial slurs