I can see why this book made so many of 2017's "best of" lists. It's hard to describe what makes it so engaging. It could be the characters, which are nuanced enough and three-dimensional that you feel like you know them. It could be the skill with which she lays out the three main plot lines then skillfully weaves them together with just enough foreshadowing to reward attentive readers with a sense of where things are going. It could be that she somehow manages to write a book that touches on family, race, death, adoption, abortion, sex, art, identity, independence - without it feeling either melodramatic or heavy. I'd rate it a 4.5 - but since that's not an option, I'm rounding up to 5.