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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Rating: 4/5
Pages: 256
Started: 8 July 2024
Finished: 13 July 2024
Summary:
Lily has only a few months before she starts school at Oxford and is finally allowed to move away from the temperamental and needy mother whose emotions Lily has managed and appeased for as long as she can remember. But when Lily begins to have strange flashbacks that seem to be memories not from her childhood, but from her mother's past, Lily realizes something needs to change. Her mother is not okay--and neither is she.
Thoughts:
Fucked up families are never boring to read, and King did a marvelous job portraying abuse and traumatic family dynamics in a way that both recognized trauma as a cycle and also did not condone the horrible things that abuse can lead people to do to each other. Lily begins the book seeming like an innocent girl, and even as the reader begins to learn how abusive her mother is, they also gain a window into Lily's unhealthy perspectives and coping mechanisms. This story is a great example of the power of hearing someone else's story as a way to normalize a difficult experience; by having my heart broken a little bit by Lily's story I was given a frame of reference for the impact of familial trauma and its repercussions, and also a reminder that the cycle of abuse should be stopped and can be stopped, even if it's not easy. This was a harsh. complicated, immersive, and compelling book with raw and three-dimensional characters; I am very glad I read this book.