I found this really slow to start, and I may have DNF’d it if it hadn’t been both a book club pick and a story and author from a different cultural experience than mine, but the reveal at around 40% in really picked up the pace and I clattered through the rest of the book in just a couple of days.

the characters are frustrating and sometimes downright angering but I felt that the author did a good job of creating nuance - there’s no absolute good and evil, there’s only how people respond to their environments, pressures and expectations and whether they allow themselves to be turned bitter and hateful or choose to do better to others than was done to them. even the objectively worst people are given some empathetic experiences, which is difficult as both an author and a reader, but is absolutely necessary for this story.

this is not the kind of book I usually reach for, I’m more of a fantasy or mystery reader, but I’m glad to have read it.