Mollie

I have a hard time rating this (why do I find myself saying this so often) because I had serious issues with the structure of the book which detracted from its searing eloquence about grief.

The topic is incredibly important and sometimes the author would pen a sentence so poignant that it would rouse deep sadness and anger for me about the state of this country. The section on her brother is heartbreaking and beautifully written in its sorrow. However, I really struggled understanding the timeline of the other sections and wish it the novel occurred on one solid timeline versus jumping back and forth.

This was just not good. The author tells the story in alternating narrators each chapter, yet both of these vastly different women sound exactly the same. I literally found myself going back pages to figure out who was even talking. As far as the story, it feels like it tried to go for some sort of twisty shock value but it's just hollow and not all that shocking, just unbelievable in a dumb way. For a book set in Tangier, I felt little connection to the setting or why the characters even were there in the first place.