I don’t know what I just read but I do know that it absolutely destroyed me
__________________________

Ok real review time.

This book is brutal. It is intense in a way that I haven't experienced in a while, and it's also incredibly bizarre. It follows Jack and August, childhood best friends whose relationship has always had an undeniable intensity that neither boy fully understands. When Jack starts showing signs of a worsening mental illness, August tries to help in the only way he knows how: by indulging Jack and spiraling deeper into his hallucinations with him.

The way mental illness is explored in this book is not typical of most YA fiction, where I think many authors feel compelled to take a safer route. Here, Ancrum's prose and storyline subtly parallel the darkening path August and Jack go down, both the boys' relationship and the plot getting stranger and more intense. It's an uncomfortable read because mental illness is not comfortable. It's a unique storytelling style that works so perfectly here. This book tore me apart in the best way.