I think it's much better to approach this as pure literary fiction rather than genre/horror, as marketed. The pacing dragged at points for me, mostly because I wasn't a huge fan of the characters (outside of maybe Kendra). The frame narrative of the court case did help in keeping the tension building even during the slower first half, though. There are several points about race that are interwoven throughout the story, although I found them to lean a bit too far into soap-box territory more often than not over being well-incorporated into the narrative. In the end, I think this is an interesting if potentially controversial piece.