🥂 to the people we get to become without the weight of narcissist parents. phenomenal memoir, phenomenal audio, and I'm very excited to continue following Jennette's writing career.

To say that V.E. Schwab is a master of her craft in this book would be an understatement. Multiple POVs that are distinct in voice and structure and time, yet also parallel and intertwine. Beautiful and evocative writing. Deeply nuanced and compelling characters. A plot that manages to twist and turn and satisfy despite it being a character-driven book. Layered themes of womanhood and queerness and religion and ambition and desire and power and abuse and humanity and freedom and personal evolution. Completely captivating and deeply thought provoking; this is a book you want to buy hard copy and take a pen to. I could not possibly recommend it more.

I loved this book, not just for the story itself, but for the way it's written. The prose is beautiful without feeling showy, and it trusts the reader and rewards attention. It's immersive, thoughtful, and very intentional. The kind of writing that makes you want to slow down and really pay attention.

This is the kind of book that benefits from being read slowly and with care. There are so many connections, parallels, and echoes between characters and settings that it would be easy to miss some things if you're reading quickly without much reflection. That's not to say it can't be read fast or purely for a story, but a lot of the nuance lives in those quiet overlaps and repetitions. If you're reading strictly for plot, you may come away missing what makes this book special.

What stood out most to me were the character studies. The characters are built with so much care, and I especially loved how they're shaped in relation to one another. The comparisons and contrasts between them highlight different traits in subtle but powerful ways, letting you understand each character more deeply by seeing them reflected in others.

The settings are just as important as the characters. Each place and time feels carefully chosen to mirror or amplify what the characters are experiencing emotionally. The environments aren't just backdrops. They actively enhance the mood and deepen the emotional impact of the story.

This is a quiet book in some ways and brutal in others, but it's always intimate. It's a story about desire, longing, and the ways people change, or don't, over time. I finished it feeling unsettled in the best way, and genuinely impressed by how much control the writing shows.

An easy five-star read for me, and one I know will stay with me.