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brogan7's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
This is a melancholy story. I didn't realize--I don't know how I missed it?--it's the story of a family coming to terms with the loss of the youngest daughter.
Carys Bray delivers her characters in her own inimitable style--there they are, mere pieces of paper, but the characters lift off the page and walk...the proud Dad, a Bishop in his Mormon faith, a man who clings to that faith in the face of this horrifying event in his life; the mother, not born within the faith and never quite absorbed by it, who is absolutely stilled by the loss of her child; the siblings: Zippy, who is trying to negotiate a world where her body and mind are trying to resolve themselves to the narrow future she is offered, a "good girl" who wants what is right and good and asked of her; Al, the next oldest, lippy and rebellious and looking for himself, for his own right path, though he doesn't know what it is and suspects he can't live up to it; and Jacob, the third child, who, at seven, is bent on believing in miracles...
Bray's touch on religion is feather-light; she doesn't judge, she just tells. And when you come face to face with phenomenal loss, who's to say what is the path to healing? What story you have, what helps you carry on?
And what if the story of someone you love, is not the story you need for your own healing? But what is love if not the imperfect knitting together of stories? And what is life if not the construction of stories, whether from the past or into the future, a retelling of what you believe to be true, or need to be true, in order to survive?
Carys Bray delivers her characters in her own inimitable style--there they are, mere pieces of paper, but the characters lift off the page and walk...the proud Dad, a Bishop in his Mormon faith, a man who clings to that faith in the face of this horrifying event in his life; the mother, not born within the faith and never quite absorbed by it, who is absolutely stilled by the loss of her child; the siblings: Zippy, who is trying to negotiate a world where her body and mind are trying to resolve themselves to the narrow future she is offered, a "good girl" who wants what is right and good and asked of her; Al, the next oldest, lippy and rebellious and looking for himself, for his own right path, though he doesn't know what it is and suspects he can't live up to it; and Jacob, the third child, who, at seven, is bent on believing in miracles...
Bray's touch on religion is feather-light; she doesn't judge, she just tells. And when you come face to face with phenomenal loss, who's to say what is the path to healing? What story you have, what helps you carry on?
And what if the story of someone you love, is not the story you need for your own healing? But what is love if not the imperfect knitting together of stories? And what is life if not the construction of stories, whether from the past or into the future, a retelling of what you believe to be true, or need to be true, in order to survive?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Child death
Depression, non-consensual sex
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