I have been sitting here for a few days now trying to figure out how to review this book and I am no closer to having a coherent review, so instead we get some stream of consciousness gibberish instead. 

This book was damn near perfect and absolutely broke me. I am CONSISTENTLY impressed with how Castro can make me feel so many feelings in such a short amount of pages. 

I first picked this book up in October, but with my friend passing a book about such profound grief was not the move so I shelved it for a bit. A small part of me wanted to DNF it, and I realize now it’s because I think I always knew how much this book would hurt, but FUCK if it wasn’t the best kind of hurt. 

The conversations around womanhood, culture, community and grief were so spot on. Casto is a beautiful writer and she knows when to pack a punch and when to let it lie. She isn’t gratuitous with her blood and gore, but when she uses it, ugh, the descriptions are both beautiful and horrific, making your skin absolutely crawl. 

Belinda was in a lot of ways a very unlikable character, and a little too rough around the edges but I saw so much of myself in her… and that ending. My GOD that ending. 

The way I just wept. 

This book just broke me and I loved it.