Like many of us, this was one of my most anticipated reads of this year, I was so ready to love this! And I just didn’t…

I felt a lot of the themes explored were never fully fleshed out? The only theme I felt was truly explored fully was the mother daughter dynamic and even that felt flat to me. I wish the racially charged dynamic between Mirabelle and Mother were explored a bit more.

I do love Mona’s writing and the atmospheres she creates. No one knows how to make a stream of consciousness written character quite like her, however in this particular book it got old pretty fast. The flashback driven plot really threw me for a loop as it’s what drives Mira’s choices and we see no real growth. Overall I just felt it read a little clunky, yes I love Mona’s voice but the overall tone of this read was more serious and way longer than I expected.