I struggled a little with my rating for this book. I couldn't decide if it would be a 3 or 4 Stars. If I were going on just the technical aspects of the book, then this would be a 5 Star read all the way. The writing was outstanding. The plot was original and intricate. It had a well rounded cast of secondary characters. The story jumped back and forth from past to present. happy for now.
So yea, to say that this was a gut wrenching and emotional book would be an understatement. And therein lies the main issue I had and why I was wavering between 3 and 4 stars. Reading this book was like sitting under a wet blanket for five hours. It was just one over the top tragic event after another. By 70% I was exhausted. I just wanted to get done with the last 30% as quickly as I could. I knew going in this would not be a unicorn farting rainbows type of story, but I really felt like this story needed some sort of...lightness?? Hope? Something to break up the constant misery and darkness. We really get none of that into very late into the book.
However, after thinking on it a bit I decided to go with 4 Stars. The book really was masterfully written, and deserved a higher rating. Just be aware if you decide to tackle it you need to be prepared for a lot of heavy subject matter and scenes. I'll add a spoiler trigger warning below as I know some scenes in this book could trigger readers.
TRIGGERS: There are two graphic rape scenes in this book. A M/F one, and a M/M one. There is also less graphic sexual abuse and torture of secondary characters.
