Notes:
- Such a good book! Had a lot of things I really love: litfic character-driven story, a zoomed out look at people's lives, relationships between people, coming of age experiences and how we as humans try to meet life and all its challenges.

- The sections that dealt with Dexter's grief from his mother's death, how lost he felt when he and Emma weren't speaking and the final section after Emma's death were all so steeped in that sadness that I find cathartic to read in literature. Very gutwrenching but very well explored.

- Hesitant 4.5 based on overall feeling of enjoyment of the book, but I am reviewing this much too late after I finished it and would like to pick it apart a bit more at some point to clarify my thoughts.