I liked this well enough. It had a strong start, lagged a little in the middle, but managed to have an ending that tied up well. Also, the sort-of-talking dog added extra points. 

Now, one thing that made me a little confused was this: it’s set in the 60s so we know to expect a lot of overt sexism and misogyny but I found it all to be a little on the nose; to the point of the antagonists being like caricatures. They were there to serve the purpose of being bad and not much else and it got tired at some point. The one who managed to “redeem” herself, in the end, was the exception as they gave us some background to her.

The story’s quirkiness did not, in any way, tone down the shock of the violence, sexual assault, and pain within it (not that I expected it to). One minute we’re following something silly like the dog counting numbers, next thing there’s a stark rape scene.

All in all, I liked the message of this book and how the story was told and I particularly enjoyed the unexpected and  achingly beautiful love story within it. Defiant protagonists have my heart and Elizabeth Zott was defiant to the very last page. This was a solid debut and I’d love to read more from this author.