Trigger warnings: disappearance of a friend/sibling/child, mentions of cheating, abusive parent, alcohol abuse, domestic violence, mentions of paedophilia,

death of a friend/sibling/child, car accident resulting in death.

I was super excited to read this after LOVING Small Spaces when it first came out. And then I promptly put off reading it for a month the second it arrived in the mail because *gestures at entire planet*. 

I finally persuaded myself to pick it up, and I found it a much slower read than Small Spaces. Please know that this is not a negative comment. I FLEW through Small Spaces. This being slower is partly because, you know, GLOBAL PANDEMIC and partly because it's more of a contemporary with some crime investigation elements where Small Spaces is a psychological thriller. 

I really liked the characters and the fact that it jumped between the past and the present, as well as three different protagonists. The writing is solid. The claustrophobic nature of both Mason's homelife and the small town are strong. I loved the complexities of the friendships and the family relationships. 

But ultimately, I was left feeling like the pacing is slightly off?? There's so much action packed into the last 75-ish pages, and it would have been nice to have the action start earlier in the book. And then the ending felt a little too abrupt, and I...yeah. I don't know. I really enjoyed a lot about this! But it just wasn't QUITE what I thought it would be.