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This is a very rough and honest book. There is a lot of darkness throughout but Mottley's style kept it in balance to allow you room to still root for Kia and her family. The fact that this was written at the age of 17 is astonishing and I cannot wait to see what else Mottley brings to the table.

This is the first fiction book that I have read that actually feels truly real. I kept having to take a moment to remind myself that this is based on an actual investigation that occured in Oakland, but everything else is fictional. The amount of times I reached for my phone to look something up before remembering says it all.

Very highly recommend, just make sure you're in the headspace for some heavy topics before starting it up.

I'm new to poetry. A lot of it goes over my head, but I do know that styles and subtleties can vary heavily between each poet. The poetry in this seemed lyrical. I enjoyed it and found it beautiful with being able to hear the emotion and intent behind each story portrayed by Tagaq. Highly recommend going with the audiobook so you can hear it, with an added bonus that she does throat singing between the sections. With that said, I did not grasp a lot of what was being told. I felt like I understood it completely but then when sitting down to think on it, I realized I didn't truly get what was being told. I'm not sure if it is due to the story not being meant for me or if I'm just a little too dense for deep lyrical stories.

This was a goodie. Thriller, witch trials and burnings, time travel, mysterious creatures known as Wildlings that show up to wipe out bloodlines. I felt like the balance of jumping around in the timelines was just right.

I have never read The Fall of the House of Usher, so I cannot comment on references to the original.

I read Mexican Gothic last year and saw people comparing it with this one, so I was not surprised to see the similarities, or to see in the authors note that they were inspired by MG. I did however find this to be more enjoyable. It felt more streamlined and didn't drag on in any areas. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel to see where it goes.

I found this one to be more enjoyable than Love Hypothesis. 🤷‍♀️

I really enjoyed this. Full 5 stars from me. But the topics were a LOT heavier than the blurb made it out to be. The cover is also deceptive. I learned about the Tamil people and the civil war in Sri Lanka which I was previously unaware of.

There is a lot of active racism and racially-driven violence through the book, and a lot of detailed recollections of the civil war. My one complaint would be that it took me a bit to grasp the characters because it felt like it was jumping around a little much in the beginning, but that may very well be a me issue. This is one I will likely see about buying a copy of to revisit at a later date.