Rating this book was hard because the text was difficult for me to read. I had to take long breaks and some days I could only venture to read 10-20 pages. But Allison crafts some of the most real characters ever constructed in literature in these pages. Allison tells the story of abuse in a visceral and unrelenting way—a way that causes you as a reader to flinch, to stutter, to fail to breathe, gasping. I read this in a dark time in my own life and I simultaneously regret this and appreciate the clarity this text gave me. It may be a new favorite book, though I’m not sure how one can return to it knowing what you know.