I never thought of picking this up if it weren't for a readalong I joined in. So I come in without many expectations. Suffice to say, I was pleasantly surprised I enjoyed this book.

Vesper is your regular early twenties gal struggling with life. She works at a restaurant/bar (?) for minimum wage, she ran away from home at 18, leaving the tight knight religious community that she grew up with, life never seem bright in her eyes. Her days are shitty, she doesn't really have ambition, and one day her day got so awful that she lose her job and got a wedding invitation of her ex and her cousin/bestfriend. If she go to the wedding, it means she was coming back to the community. But if she doesn't, she will missed the opportunity to get revenge besides, she's curious what will happen if Rosie and Brody saw her at their wedding. So she went. That's when her life was going downhill.

There's not much happens in the first 40% of the book. Mostly until that point, the author is unraveling the timeline from Vesper's ordinary day to the point where she decided to go back to her hometown. There's a plot twist revealed in the early chapters about the strange circumstances surrounding her childhood. That twist is good, because I wasn't aware that it is similar to the opposite of what I thought it was. But then the pace slowed down, she was welcomed by the people in the neighborhood. Vesper is overwhelmed by the familiarity and the unchanging environment. While trying to overcome the pain she endured in childhood now that she is back to where she grew up in, some odd things seem to occur.

I like the way the author writer Vesper's voice as the narrator. She is snappish, tired-done-with-life, and anti people-pleasing using short sentences to accentuate her idgaf personality. And when she was being mellow, I can feel that Vesper's voice shifted as well. The build up to the horror elements is a little cliche at first, but it really picks up later in the book. There's another important plot twist that determined the ending, that twist, I think is kind of hilarious. Not necessarily in a bad way, just a plain "of course, Vesper is that," because a predictable twist that makes sense the pieces of clues given here and there. The revealing of that twist is oddly trying to be lighthearted despite the good build up surrounded by the horror elements???? I don't know, I think during that reveal, the Gen-Z-ish manner is disconcerting.

I think I enjoyed a lot the slow and even rhythm of Vesper's character development. It's impressive how smooth the characterization too. All of the other characters are distinct in their own way as well, the only one that's a little cartoonish is her dad LOL. Her dad's role in the last half of the book is essential. The ambience surrounding that whole fiasco with her dad is sinister and creepy, well I really that part. During this part too that we got to see Vesper's worst traits though honestly she wasn't likeable to begin with. But. It really got good towards the end. I appreciate the author picking up unanswered questions about the religious community at the first half of the book. Everything wrapped up in a neat ending. I was expecting more cannibalism in it tho.

Overall an enjoyable read despite the predictable plot and cliche twist.