WOW look at me, posting again finally!! I think my last uhhhh three posts have been reviews, but we won’t speak of that.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Inkyard Press in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars

I truly do not have the words to describe how utterly fantastic this book was. It just . . . wow. WOW. Wow a million times. I adored this book with my entire heart, and I want to go back and read it again from the start. I stayed up til three in the morning reading this, and had tears streaming down my face by the end. (good tears. despite the dark tone, this book is ultimately hopeful)

I don’t even know where to start when it comes to reviewing this book. It was so rich with emotions, and so real, and so beautiful. It’s not by any means a light or easy book to read: it deals very heavily with homophobia and religion. But the way it handles it is so, so thoughtful and powerful.

The writing was so compelling, I found myself sucked so completely into the story. I don’t usually love epistolary novels, but it worked so well in this context, and it really gave the characters’ voices a chance to shine through.

Speaking of the characters! They were absolutely wonderful. Each and every one of them was so fleshed out, and I just felt all the feels over them.

– Tammy: Tammy’s character . . . holy fuck y’all. I loved seeing how she grew from this scared ashamed closeted gay kid to this really badass girl who was PROUD of her sexuality. It was such a hopeful storyline. And I absolutely loved how it showed her feeling so passionately that her identity wasn’t wrong, but still being too scared to fight. It really showed the complexity of her character, and of the queer experience.

– Sharon: Sharon was . . . a complex character. I honestly really hated her at first, but as the book progressed I started to really appreciate her depth. She was incredibly flawed, but her flaws were’t overlooked. And she grew into such an incredible person.

– The side characters: the side characters were so wonderfully fleshed out! I especially loved Sharon’s brother and the girls at the bookstore, but every single one of the side characters felt like a living breathing person, and it was masterful.

Overall? Read! this! book! It is such a gorgeous work of art, and I was absolutely entranced. Please do your eyeballs a favour and read it.

[su_spoiler title=”Trigger Warnings:” icon=”chevron”]homophobia, internalized homophobia, death threats, brief mentions of anti-gay violence, outing, threat of outing, panic attack, sexual harassment, threat of conversion therapy [/su_spoiler]

Do you like historical fiction? What are your thoughts on deeply flawed but well developed main characters? Have you read this/is it on your TBR?