Wow, what an incredible piece of fiction that touches on so many and in some ways, uncomfortable topics as we follow along on this downward spiral of grief and the unintentional domino effect our actions could have on those we love.

I have never read anything that dealt with Native culture and so going into this book I was excited to see how that community dealt with some of the themes that play out over the course of this novel and it just broke my heart.

There was a sense of skirting around the problem, whether it be suicide or another one of the issues mentioned over the course of the book, and pretending like it doesn’t exist until it happens and you can’t run from it anymore and that was a big weight Shane had to carry in regards to his sister’s suicide and desire to move on with his life even if it meant leaving others behind, David with his sexuality and finding a balance between who he is and his culture, and finally Tara as discussed in her journal writing and poetry intermixed between the main narration.

It’s difficult to write more because I don’t wish to spoil anything but the whole time I was reading all I wanted to do was hug everyone and let them know that it was okay to talk about things and just listen so all of those thoughts, emotions and the darkness in their past didn’t eat at them from the inside until it had nowhere else to go but out into the open where, like in the book itself, it would end up as just another picture in a scrapbook of pain and suffering locked away in a safe where no one could see or do anything to change it for the better.

**thank you to netgalley for proving an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**