The topics that this story tackles make it a tough read. It is beautifully written, but it is tragic at every turn. I had to set the book down many times just to breathe because the story doesn't give you any breaks from the trauma. I can understand if it makes some readers uncomfortable. It's a well written debut, but it is tough to read.

Thank you to NetGalley for an Advanced Reader's Copy of this book. As always, all opinions are entirely my own!!

I want to preface this by stating I was extremely looking forward to this book.

Whilst I understood that we were going to be discussing some tough, dark, hard-hitting topics, I was not expecting it to be non-stop trauma. Nor was I expecting the insistent need for the readers to be witness to every extremely painfully traumatic experience in this novel.

From the very first page we are thrown into the deep end and even getting to the ending I was still unable to navigate the waters without my lungs filling up with water. Whilst I understand why it's important to portray traumatic experiences in literature, I think the problem emerges when it is all the novel is. When the read starts to feel like "just how dark can I get with this writing just for the sake of seeing what lands on the wall" we fall into trauma-porn territory.

The synopsis did not set me up for just how brutal the content in the pages was going to be. This was an extremely unpleasant book to read. Perhaps I am just too sensitive for it.

Although this book personally did not leave me with anything good to say about it, I do look forward to seeing what this author produces after this.

I have compiled a list of Content Warnings. I highly suggest looking through them before reading this book.

Well, this was a surprise. In a good way! Sosa is a new-to-me author, so I requested this book because of its description, and what a thrill it was! Really, a phenomenal tale.