I'm having trouble putting into words how I feel about this book. It wasn't what I expected...at all. I'm glad Kiko grew by the end and realized she couldn't need Jamie. I'm glad she took time to come back to him. I think that was important and I'm glad it went there, acknowledged that everything else was unhealthy until then.

I just don't think I loved this book the way I wish I did. There was too much telling and not enough showing. It got really good toward the ending, but I still think this book tried to tackle too much and as a result, it didn't tackle any of its topics to their fullest potential. This book is the shell of what it could have been.

If you want to read about screwed up families, biracial families, healing and loving and living, I recommend Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng instead.

But in fairness, I think this story means a lot to some people, and fractions of it meant a lot to me, I just think that I could have connected more to it the way I did with other books.

I'm probably not going to write more of a review, just because I feel too emotionally fractured from it. Some parts felt too personal and writing a longer review would just break open pieces of myself.

The bottom line is: this book is important in its own way. I just think it could have been a lot more than it was.

-Book Hugger