I couldn't quite pin down why exactly this book was set in 1973/1997, and the inexplicability and lack of necessity of that affected my enjoyment of the story. However, if that were my only qualm, I'd probably have been able to push it aside - unfortunately, it was not. There were so many loose endings that weren't fleshed out, new plot points being added in place of old ones being explained, not to mention (although I guess I'm about to) some truly wild and disastrous decisions by mother and daughter alike. I really wanted to like this, but it was only okay. 

I was honestly a little disappointed by this book. I really liked the concept but it took me a longggggg time to care about the characters at all. I felt like I couldn't relate to either of them very much until about halfway through the book. A lot of Maeve's character felt like it was made more complicated than it needed to be for these things to happen. I have no idea why her having been ill as a child was important to her story at all. I hated Stuart from the very first time he was mentioned and I was right. I wish the ending was more satisfying because once we got into the very real complications of these characters and I started to think they were interesting, they just wrapped everything up and everything was "okay" in the end without anyone actually doing anything to get there. I do think it's a good book, I just wanted more out of these characters because I think they deserved it.

I also really think they should have drowned Stuart in the river at the end. It would have been satisfying

Though, I do wonder if maybe the reason the ending wasn't satisyfing is because it was a realistic ending. That is kind of how those things tend to go and I think a lot of my wishing is that I was in Maeve's position once and I wish someone had

DROWNED HIM

instead of just not doing anything about it really. The mom deserved better, too. Stuart deserved worse.