Nelson creates an intricate textual exploration into the fragmentary process of dealing with grief, loss, unsolved crime and violence, and the kind of shadow a family member can cast over an entirely family when they die young and unnaturally. Weaving her aunt's journal entries, her own poetry, news reports, and more, the book serves as both an inquiry into Jane's death and a tribute to her life. Although, mostly presented in verse form in terms of line breaks and spacing, it reads with the kind of momentum a prose drama might as it pulls you ever deeper into the pain, confusion, and loss the Mixer family experienced. Nelson is one of only a few writers who seem to create and leverage such an exquisite tension between the analytical and the emotional in their writing.
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an excerpt:

DIGNITY

They knew how to mourn
with dignity

my mother says.
It's the Calvinist way.

As if keening on your knees
were somehow obscene

As if there were a control
so marvelous

you could teach it
to eat pain.