unfortunately i am incredibly disappointed by this one. Black Cake was an instant 5 star read for me and i was so excited to read this one. i fear Black Cake was such a huge success, leading to a television series soon after, that the author wrote her next book as if it would become a show. WAYYY too much telling rather than showing, and that's something i hardly complain about in books. i did not really like any of the characters. obviously i felt terrible for Ebby and what she witnessed so early in life, but she was not a character i cared about. the subplot with her ex and his girlfriend was really frustrating and we spent SO MUCH time there. there were too many POVs, the book pulled in too many directions, and no one felt real by any means. a lot of suspension of beliefs, everything happened too neatly and perfectly. there were so many parts of the book where i thought "why are we even talking about this?" and the author would abandon it after two pages anyway. too many reveals and secrets characters had were kept for so long that they felt really inconsequential by the end. unbelievably sad that this did not live up to the hype for me.