A gut wrenching story with a unique premise (though it did remind me a little of the film The Lobster in some ways so perhaps not that unique).

Goodness me, Lewis was was quite unlikeable in parts. I really felt for Wren though. What was that bit about

the immature shark dancing him too?

It felt so odd.

Wren ending up

being pregnant

felt super obvious as a plot point.

Her mum's tour of the facility has really stayed in my mind too but I've got your a Komodo dragon facility booked soon so it might just be that!

If I'm honest, I felt a little lost in parts, particularly when the story jumped into the past for a bit to explain Wren's Mum's story. The book has a few parts that are written differently, for example the parts written as a play. Listening to the book as an audiobook, these were a little jarring.

I'll be thinking about this book for a while.

In regards to the ending-

After entering the waves to play with her daughter in the very spot where her husband was ripped from her arms, the last few lines read

"Wren loosens her grasp. It is so hard to let go. "Go, play, be free!" Wren says, her heart hammering like rain on a metal roof. Joy summersaults into a wave, disappears for a second and emerges smiling. "It's easy, see!"

That last line just felt layered. It was the last line that really got me.