I found this book compelling and quite cinematic. In between reading sessions, I found myself picturing the characters, on the road, in the diner, as if remembering scenes from a movie I’d recently watched. Yet happening from a book I was currently reading. Not just vividly imagined while I was actually turning the pages, but while I was off doing other things, as if calling me back to read more. I’m lost at how else to describe that, except to say I am not surprised that this has already been picked up for adaptation by HBO. Brit Bennett is an incredible story telling talent. I loved so many of the characters, especially Jude, Reese, Kennedy. How I felt in each of the book’s many settings that I was actually right there, hovering about each scene and its vivid image. The sections of the book, the divisions of time and the multiple points of view worked really well. I was thoroughly impressed all around. Maybe the best book I’ve read this year.

“Memory works that way— like seeing forward and backward at the same time. In that moment, she could see in both directions.”

“Death hit in waves. Not a flood, but water lapping steadily at her ankles. You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.”