4.5 stars

I wish so much this were a true 5-star book for me. It was five stars in my heart and five stars through perhaps the first 50-60%. The ending wasn't bad, by any means, but it lost a bit of its own magic with too many explanations (ones that didn't always fit to me) and a literal walk-and-talk of exposition at the end to tie everything together. For a story that flitted so magically at the beginning, the laying out of all the pieces really halted the magic for a moment.

Other than that one thing, I loved this so much, it squeezed my heart. Perhaps I was exactly the right audience: I love fabulism and I'm a sucker for stories about grief. This is both and it did both things incredibly well. I love the way Henry describes the sting of grief-- the way it goes away and then in the middle of you day, your hours, it comes back, reminding you of the thing that you lost. I loved how she used the magical elements to weave real emotions into her story. A house "haunted" by memories, cherries that taste of home, grief glittering like a ghost always in the field of your vision.

I loved the characters so much. June is fantastic and the friendship between June and Hannah is well featured and lovely. They love each other and they are right at the cusp of growing up and leaving each other. There is grief and heartbreak in that as well. Saul was wonderful. I nearly cheered when on a couple of occasions, June asked him to stop something or just leave and he said, "okay" and did just that. IMAGINE.

There's a lot more I could say and it would all be gushing. I read it all in two sittings. One of my favorite reads of 2017 for sure.