This book was a series of surprises until the very end. I didn’t expect the degree to which it twisted and turned. What I thought would be a light and easy beach read turned out to be one of the more thought-provoking stories I’ve read in awhile, largely because of its ability to reach those parts we, as humans do our best to hide.

Through Victoria, Robin Yeatman goes there. She deftly depicts those darker feelings and experiences we keep to ourselves and rarely act upon, those we wouldn’t dare share with our closest friends for fear we would be harshly judged or excommunicated. I appreciate that brutal honesty and wish more of these conversations would happen beyond the page. Victoria’s sadness and darkness makes her relatable. Her love of books and the escape they provide is understandable.

This book is timely and speaks directly to a lot of the pain, loneliness and discomfort that many have felt or currently feel “post-pandemic” while also asking the reader to examine their role in their healing. While she wasn’t entirely likable, I do feel readers will recognize parts of themselves in Victoria and, as a result, root for her all the same.

Favorite quote: “That’s the kind of reader Victoria was. She couldn’t release herself from the pain of a bad book until she’d read every last page…she liked to think it was due to an unrelenting optimism, the hope that anything could get better.”