This rating should actually be in between a 2.75 and a 3 stars but it gets a 3 out of 5 stars.
This book is a hard one to rate, it's one of those where the story is well written and the characters feel like real people but it's also incredibly sad with an unsatisfactory ending that bummed me out. The book is thought provoking and the characters are incredibly complex. Sometimes they're likeable, other times their absolutely not - which I believe adds to their authenticity (although I will say I only had maybe 2 characters I liked consistently throughout the book). Unfortunately this book made me incredibly sad especially with the end. There was so much tragedy on one particular side of the "sisters" family and it just felt like a "women can't have anything they want" kind of book. There wasn't enough time spent on one sister's side of things in my opinion, as she seemed to have a nice life with nice people even if her perspective was always tinged with regret - I really wanted to know about her (she's also one of the characters I always really liked by the way).
This is a typical book by a Kentucky author with an MFA - it's very sad and takes itself very seriously (hence the ending). I was pleased that the book wasn't about Eastern Kentucky/Appalachian area as most Kentucky books are, although Louisville is mentioned at least once (I'm starting to think that it's a requirement of stories based in KY to mention Louisville or Lexington).

Just a note: I don't know if a lot of people have put trigger warnings for this book on here but I will be and I will say you should definitely check those out. The book deals with sexual assault especially and it does get intense at the very beginning and the aftermath is especially heartbreaking throughout the book.