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This was my first Boyne book so I cannot compare this work to previous ones, but if the others are anything like this on, the man is a genius.

This was a bit of a beastie and that caused me to put it off longer than I should have due to bad experiences with longer books dragging on for the sake of additional pages. This did not drag on at all. Everything that happens to Cyril throughout this book has a purpose and an impact on his life as well as the lives of the people around him.

Cyril is a queer male in Ireland during a time where it was illegal to be so and could mean death if found out. Due to this, there is a lot of hate crimes and violence throughout the book that also end in some deaths, so definitely beware of that before picking it up. There is also a good amount of misogyny and discussions on the hypocrisy of the church. Again, everything that happens in here had a purpose behind it, so it never came across as just hating against anyone.

Highly recommend this one. I laughed, I cried, I gasped, all the emotions that a good book will pull out of your soul.

The story was enjoyable enough which was good since there really isn't a massive underlying story going on. You do not get any answers as to what is going on. You are literally following the MC as she is experiencing things in her life disappear and you never know anything more than what she knows.

All the characters in this book are anonymous, no names are ever given, but it felt right and did not detract from being able to follow the story at all.

There is not some big "AH-HA" moment where everything clicks. For me, it came across that in the beginning, the MC is afraid of losing her editor/friend (who does not lose his memories) after having lost her parents. But on the flip side, her friend is watching her deteriorate bit by bit as the memories are taken from her and she begins to forget how to live. It's eerie because of how quickly and easily the forgetting is accepted, and there is an underlying tension through the entire book because at any moment, a memory can be erased.

Not one that I will have an interest in rereading again, but found it to be a good read.