This book was truly incredible. I’m so happy that Butler continues to amaze me with every read. 

The first half of this in particular was outstanding, but the novel as a whole was incredibly written and so powerful. 

I also found myself relating to Lauren in so many ways, which is ridiculously rare for me. The sense of existential dread we share, and the awareness of it, is intense. She manages to cope a lot better than I ever could though. 

And what’s even more outstanding is that I enjoyed and was even moved by the poetry/verse in this story. Usually, poetry does absolutely nothing for me, however much I try to appreciate it, but clearly something about Butler’s style works for me across mediums. 

The only reason I’m docking .25 stars from my rating is because of the ‘hyperempathy’. I didn’t think it really added much to the story, apart from making Lauren weaker in physical situations, and I was honestly confused how it worked. 

For the majority of the book, we’re told Lauren only experiences the pain if she sees someone in pain, that it’s all ‘in her head’ and it’s her psyche making it up. This is then reinforced towards the end of the book where she manages to trick someone else into feeling less of her pain by pretending she wasn’t as injured as she really was. Ok, so by that logic, basically you see either the source of the pain or the person feeling the pain, and your brain makes you feel that pain in empathy/when you’re a kid somehow pushed blood through your skin. 

BUT, when they were in fights, and Lauren saw really badly injured people, she’d know they were either unconscious or dead because she stopped feeling their pain. She didn’t see them turn unconscious/die, but somehow her mind knew and stopped the pain? So, which is it? A real condition that somehow links her nervous system to other peoples, or a completely psychosomatic condition?? 

However, as the condition didn’t really play that much of a role in the plot, I wasn’t that bothered by the mixed messaging. If it becomes more prominent in the second book, I hope we get some more solid answers.