You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey

Mixed feelings, but damn, y'all need to read this.The tone is initially offputting: chipper, breezy, like it's written for third-graders. But then, partway through, something shifted in me and I Got It. It took courage to write it that way, and they pulled it off, and if you pick it up and feel tempted to DNF because of the style: stick with it. Flippancy be damned, this is a sober, mature work... and the incongruity of the tone is exactly the way to convey the full impact of this violence, much like [b:Forest of the Gods 17372568 Forest of the Gods Balys Sruoga https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1382565904l/17372568.SY75.jpg 2663461]. Anything else would be too painful.I rarely post excerpts, but this one from near the end is too perfect:You'll find that a lot of these stories don't have a natural conclusion or a “what I learned” at the end of them. That is because this is real life and it does not stop.There is so much feeling compressed in there. Maybe not out of context; maybe you're puzzled by my quoting it. You'll just have to read it and find out for yourself.