I have so much to say about this book I don’t know where to start so I’ll begin with a small intro. 

Reader is introduced to Gonzalo and then his girlfriend, Carla. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Man regains woman. 

Carla now has a 6-year old son, Vicente. She and baby daddy, Léon, “co-parent” but really Léon does the bare minimum and even Vicente is confused on why he has to leave his home a weekend a month to spend time with this man. 

The beginning of the novel has the perfect combination of teenage angst, first sexual experiences, and finally first heartbreak. It moves quickly enough in between the teenage to coming-of-age stage to keep the reader hooked.

Gonzalo from the beginning is all in on getting to know Vicente as his own. When he becomes unemployed he quickly becomes the default parent. The parent whom is sought out for all big and small events. The parent that does pick-up and drop-offs, the one who stays up late night helping their child study. He becomes a step-father by name but a real father in every other sense. 

The attraction between Gonzalo & Carla never ceased so the sex scenes between them were steamy yet intimate. It’s the steamy sex between people who’ve know each other well, people who are comfortable in all their moods and whims. It was marital intimacy without the legal marital label. 

The relationship between Gonzalo & Vicente was the most beautiful part of the novel. Vicente adores his cat, Darkness, who blesses the cover of the book. When Darkness is sick and Carla & Gonzalo receive a hefty estimate for her surgery they decide they can’t afford it. A series of events ensues where Vicente is rebelling against them by selling all of his personal belongings in order to raise money for the surgery. He recruits his classmates who help him print out flyers with quotes supposedly said by his mom and stepfather, including “Cats are inferior beings”. The entire scene is so funny because Vicente is a pre-teen wreaking havoc because his parents won’t dish out their monthly wages for his cat. It’s endearing and Gonzalo finds a way to appease Vicente because he cares that much.

The overarching plot is that Gonzalo is an aspiring poet, he publishes, the book flops. Although he, not of his own accord, leaves Vicente’s life, Vicente grows up also wanting to be a poet. There’s tons of literary references including of Roberto Bolaño, a Chilean poet and novelist.  

There’s many themes discussed throughout the book, most importantly the meaning of family. The people who we call family are not necessarily the people who biologically are so. It’s the modern family, the significant role of a step-parent, there’s fetal loss and the aftermath. There’s crushed dreams, unrequited love, competition with “frenemies”, resentment from childhood when children don’t understand the extent of a situation they had no control over.

The novel wraps up beautifully - there’s no neat bow, no final ideal world left. It’s full of possibilities but we’re left with warmth from the reunion of Gonzalo and Vicente’s long ago bond bringing them together again.

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