I was really looking forward to this, having loved the author's YA books.

The characters were well-drawn and complicated. There were a lot of them, and a lot of backstory, so I found it difficult to keep them all straight at times. But the story was engaging and interesting and kept me reading. I felt it was a little slow to start, but once it got going about halfway through, it was really unputdownable.

The language, as you'd expect from Elizabeth Acevedo, was amazing. I did find the frequent user of untranslated Spanish a bit frustrating. I have a very limited knowledge of Spanish and found myself often resorting to Google translate.

Overall,  I liked this book a lot, but I wanted to love it. But I would still recommend it to anyone who has previously enjoyed Elizabeth Acevedo's work and who likes female-dominated family stories.

With thanks to NetGalley and Canongate for the e-ARC.