I really enjoy books where the writing style and subject matter are so at odds. You have this beautiful writing that is completely juxtaposed with a brutal story of violence and abuse, which magnifies both of those elements.

It's written in second person, which I love if done well. It was so beautiful here. His writing style was just gorgeous and I could see myself picking up more books by Grimsley just for that.

My biggest problem was just that it felt like the book was missing something. The writing and story were lovely and horrifying respectively, but I just needed something more. It wasn't doing much for me, for all that I enjoyed it. I do wonder if that was influenced by the fact that this was semi autobiographical and less of a story than a collection of fictionalized memories, but it didn't quite hit all the notes for me.

I really enjoyed this. Not my favorite book, but it was Grimsley's debut novel and I'd really like to see some of his other work.