I think this was a strong debut novel! I think that it has had aspects of a debut novel, which is lacking brevity on things that should have been brief. I found myself being like, "I don't think we needed all of that." However, that was not often. I think this book shines the light on colorism in the Black community and how ostracizing it can be if you are on the darker side of the color wheel. This is also a story of what a family will do, down to murder, to keep up with appearances. I found that sickening, but we have so many examples of that in history and probably in many readers's personal lives.