✧ — 4 stars.

❝To unravel is to unknit, disconnect, untangle, separate. To fall apart.❞

The best thing about this book was that it surprised me. When I first read this book, I genuinely thought I was going to end up hating it. The first pages were slow and unappealing and it did take quite a minute for it to start coming together. But this ended up being a beautiful novel about siblings that made me tear up because I'm extremely close to my own sisters.

What I loved:

* Renee

* The language made the book for me, more than anything else. For instance, I loved the fact that Joe was referred to as the golden boy for the first part of the book, and then slowly that started to disappear as the siblings unpacked their feelings about him and his inevitable spiral.

* I liked how Joe's addiction was not given a pass because of his childhood but was just given more of a firm standing with the explanation. That made me super happy because I really love when authors are like yes, there are sh***y events, but that doesn't give you an opening or clear pass to be a sh***y person.

* Joe was a wonderful character you couldn't help feel for and I really empathized as someone who really loves their father. All of the characters had development, and I was thrilled about that.

What I didn't love as much:

* I wish Fiona had been given more time to be a better-developed character. While she went through an arc of becoming someone who recognized where she had to be better, she was characterized by her puberty changes and sexuality which probably was on purpose because we saw her get it together, but annoyed me a little bit. And her blog wasn't explained well??? Like the purpose behind it???

* Joe was hinted at having a mental illness as well as other issues especially with

Spoiler

the visions of his father and stuff, which he started having young when he was not yet abusing substances, he was eight,

and I wish that wasn't just thrown in there and then left alone. Like we were like oh! so he could be having issues and then next thing you know he was magically completely having issues related to substances and I was like girl where did that go?

* Noni

* Caroline was a bit eh for me, I did like her in the beginning and I'm glad she started doing things for herself but she felt like another weak character just added to fill in a spot. ( She still grew on me though, lol )

* Luna??? What was that?? Like in general?? So much hype just for her to fall flat.

In conclusion, Tara Conklin wrote a novel about love but it wasn't romantic which was amazing. I liked that the strongest love that made my heart twinge was between the siblings, mainly the sisters. I also loved the underlying message of learning to work through grief and realize that sometimes things aren't your fault because you don't know when people are hurting and going through terrible things, even when you're thick as thieves. It explored human beings and their relationships, as well as exploring how people can become defined by expectations and labels and be hurt in the process.

Most importantly, this book told you that just because you're expected to, that doesn't make you obligated to love someone back, even if they love you and that you can be angry with the people you treasure. It's a part of it.

❝...just the two of them on a boat long enough for twenty, and how the late-afternoon sun made the water glimmer and glint like a thousand tiny diamonds.❞

✧