i was writing a very long review and sadly it did not save. so the gist of what i was writing is: i hate the main character, she is so apathetic that i think if straight up nuclear war happened she wouldnt blink an eye, and the treatment of the disabled child she nannies for is horrific (including her referring to him as “the syndrome” an uncountable number of times, comparing him to an “amphibian monster”,  describing his looks as “his eyes long slits in his shapeless face”, and abandoning him at her apartment for several hours at a time). the book ends with him (his name is Mauro) being sent back to the countryside with his mother, to the place where it seems implied earlier in the book that he is being abused and neglected, while he cries and desperately tries to stay with the narrator. im incredibly mad at this book. the only reason it is 1.25 stars and not just 1 is because i thought the pandemic narrative was mildly interesting.