If you’ve been looking for a story that is completely character-driven and that examines the different paths one chooses to deal with their trauma, then you’re in the right place!
Here’s something Bluebird At My Window showed that I absolutely loved. The conflicting everything. Someone can be simultaneously toxic and good. They can deal with their trauma while harming their loved ones and their loved ones are allowed to want to protect themselves while still think they’re being selfish for that, and all this conflict adds depth to the characters. Even the side characters.
Ok let’s go to the chapter formatting because that was *chef’s kiss* especially the way the formatting showed each characters mental state and how the formatting changes as their stories progresses.
And last but not least, the amount of validity in this book. You’re still valid if you want to put you first, and you’re still valid if you think you’re weak, and your emotions are still valid and everything is valid and I loved that. (A bit spoilery since I’ll mention a small tiny event in this part so skip it if you want: there’s even a teenage kid going through a breakup and he’s just a side character but his dad told him his feelings are valid and I absolutely loved that! We often see in media that teenagers’ feelings aren’t valid because they “haven’t gone through tougher stuff yet” and this book calls bullshit on every single one of these stereotypes)
And I know this review is a bit longer than my usual ones but NOTHING can encompass the amount of feelings in this book. And the way we see different characters deal with trauma differently and choose different paths, and the way anyone could choose these paths and that these paths aren’t linear or obvious. And the symbolism 10/10 (yes I had to ask the author about the symbolism because I can’t pick up on symbolism even if my life depended on it, but I had a vague idea about there being symbolism so, that counts)