While not a perfect book, I really, really enjoyed this one.

I understand the negative reviews bemoaning the lack of character growth, but I disagree. This is no hero's journey - Sadie & Sam are two highly flawed individuals, traumatized individuals who are so stuck in cycles of grief and/or dissociation that they cannot break away from which, to me, is a much more realistic portrayal of human character (seek trauma-centred therapy, you two!!).

Did I like them all the time? No, not particularly, and both conduct questionable behaviours/actions throughout, but I sure did empathize with them. I was quite taken with the point Sadie brought up about how:

"We're all living, at most, half of a life...the life you lived, which consisted of the choices you made. And then, there was the other life, the one that was the things you hadn't chosen."

So many times in this book had instances where you wonder what could have been had the other choice been made. There were just so many layers, and call backs, and foreshadowing that helped round out an engaging story on what it is to love and be loved.