Jesus Christ. Book of the year.

There was a point near the beginning where I thought seriously about DNFing. This too is a compliment to the book; I found Magos' grief incredibly difficult to share. I was meant to. This was very effective. Switching POV was the best thing this book could have done, and it did it brilliantly each time. Each perspective was gut-wrenching for its own reasons, and by the time we were spending the most time with Monstrilio, we understood these characters because we had spent time understanding what else they cared about, spent time within their inner lives.

It does all the trite things a book about grief does. It also finds ways to strike you in the face in little grace notes in between. Each person Monstrilio meets and interacts with is functionally responding to grief: some strike out, some succumb; others run, others accept to varying degrees. Keeping Peter in the dark was inexplicable in Joseph's chapters but made perfect sense by the end of the book. Outstanding. Everything about this book was outstanding to me. A DEBUT??? Jesus Christ, I say again.

Special shout out to Uncle Luke, a deeply needed character in this story. Everyone tried so hard. God!