3.5 stars that I rounded up. Overall a pretty good read. There were some really poignant moments, and I was drawn to keep reading.

I enjoyed the friendships between the women a lot, and the situation around Sophie was moving. I wished that we got more of a build up with Sophie. I’d love to have seen Wendy and Sophie’s friendship grow as we’re /told/ it has.

I also enjoyed the portrayal of Wendy’s dad and Anna. Both characters that are complicated to show as multi-dimensional people, but Plett did such an excellent job. Especially with Anna, who could have been a religious villain. She has offensive views in combination with kindness, and Plett handles that so well. It shows that she grew up in a Mennonite community and knows people like this.

One of my main complaints is related the audiobook experience. I don’t know if this book had a lot of ellipses or something, but the narrator chose to read the dialogue with a ton of hesitation, haltingly. It was maddening after a while.

In terms of the book itself, it meandered too much for me. I wish it had focused on Wendy’s friendship with Sophie and Wendy’s grandfather to narrow the experience. Though the book starts with her grandfather, it gets sidetracked. The book felt too episodic to be as successful as a novel as it could have been.