4.5 stars

Genuinely delighted by this book, which is the kind of character-driven work that plays with a speculative element as a framing device that I delight in. There is something lovely and earnest about its observational wit, about the voice of the man character who at once reminds us what it is to feel human and what it is to feel alien. To me, this straddled that line well and never crossed the line into twee, particularly because it doesn't shy away from looking at its subject matter straight on. I felt all the heartbreak of growing up, of single motherhood, of feeling alienated, of losing a friend, of death, of depression. This is the kind of book that is quiet in its plot and perhaps even in its delivery but will haunt my thoughts all the more for it.