Idaho

I feel like this story will stick with me.

It's sad - incredibly sad - but it is written beautifully.

Lines don't float off the page and announce themselves to me saying "I'm a good quote." Rather the entire piece sings in pertinent moments, sharp specificity, and intimate character details. Sentences don't easily separate from the rest because what's important in the context of the story is not generally something we can remove from that context.

I wouldn't choose to read about the subjects in this book. After the first several pages I thought maybe this book isn't for me. But then a detail would sparkle, and in spite of the things I didn't want to read about, just enough of a hint of something would be revealed for me to keep going.

The first perspective we're dropped off with is one I can somewhat relate to - it's someone looking at a tragedy, unable to ask questions directly, but wanting to piece things together.

Initially, this book brought the following up in my mind. Some time ago a coroner's office called my partner's brother to tell him he'd died. The brother called my partner and heard his voice on the other side because he had not died.

But someone had, and he was a teenage boy to whom my partner had sold his car a while back. We were the first people to know who'd died in that car crash.

This sent me down a spiral of wanting to know what'd happened and why.

This book is like that. It's very human.