CW: R*pe, SA, PTSD, drug abuse, su*cidal ideation

Really quick read which is nice. The content and writing weren’t the best. The story and style felt very much like a knock-off Sally Rooney novel with the lack of quotation marks and the setting in Ireland. I didn’t really feel connected to the characters or their experiences. The ending was rushed, and I had a lot of questions at the end.

It was also pretty problematic that Macmanus never addressed Mary’s SA, even though that was supposed to be a central theme. Mary was made out to be a villain in her relationship with her son because she lied about his father, but she lied because he SAd her and she had PTSD. I also felt like it was super weird that her r*pist talked about his own PTSD, and it seemed like Macmanus wanted the reader to feel bad for him.

The book focused a lot of mental health, but Macmanus never unpacked the feelings or even really talked about them. It felt like she put a lot of the plot points in because she wanted to the story to be more interesting or edgy.