This was so good! Once I started reading I couldn't put it down. The story was well-paced and the characters believable. The author let us know horrific things had happened and that PTSD was at play in Sadie's character without writing out a play-by-play of her trauma in graphic detail - proving that you can write about difficult topics without turning it into trauma-porn. I forgot I was reading a "YA novel" which for me is the mark of a good YA novel. As a listener of true-crime podcasts I really enjoyed that aspect to the story.

Normally I hate open-ended novels but I think the author gave us enough information for us to make our own conclusion.

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's writing always blows me away. This was no exception.

Unpopular opinion - I enjoyed this more than The Handmaid's Tale.
It lost a star simply because I think the effectiveness of the tale was lost a little in the multiple viewpoints. I don't think "Baby Nicole's" viewpoint added anything to the story, if anything it detracted because it wasn't as well written or fleshed out as the other two. I think the story could have been told just as well if we only had Aunt Lydia's perspective, just as we only see the story through June's eyes in The Handmaid's Tale. The "twists" as others have said were fairly predictable but I didn't go into it expecting a thriller/mystery so that didn't bother me as much as it seems to have irked other readers.

This was always going to be a difficult book to write and release simply because of the hype around the first novel and living up to the varied expectations of readers. While it wasn't perfect I think it was a solid effort and a worthy sequel. I ripped through it in two days.