Mournful and beautiful story which you know early on will not have a happy ending. 

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I thought this book was alright. I wanted to like it more than I did. 

I felt for the author and his family in their anguish as they searched for their missing son. Simultaneously, the intense white privilege of this author is a lot. Kept thinking about how I wished Blair Braverman was telling the story… 2.5 stars.

What a gut wrenching story. 

The writing was lush, atmospheric, descriptive. The narrative flowed pretty well, although there were a lot of names/people in and out of the story. The dialogue was extremely cringey, enough so that it repeatedly took me out of the story. 

Roman Dial starts Cody Roman's story at the very beginning, Roman Sr.'s upbringing. We go through learning how Roman met Cody Roman's mom, their marriage, new parenthood, raising 2 children, and finally when Cody Roman goes off exploring on his own. This leads to his disappearance, and later death. All of this was good, and you could feel the outpouring of love from Roman to Cody Roman on every page. Cody Roman's disappearance and death left a gaping, unfillable hole in the Dial family. Every chapter nearing this conclusion, that the reader is aware of from the first page, is devastating. 

I had some logistical issues. The biggest one was they said Cody Roman suffered no broken bones, and the ranger believed his death to be caused by a snake bite. But Roman and Peggy are insistent that he died from a tree branch landing on his camp, crushing him and killing him. I don't know how that could happen and not break or fracture a single bone. Maybe it's the grief, maybe it's something that was said in real life that wasn't explained properly on paper, but it was mentioned repeatedly and really bugged me. 

Roman Dial is a decent writer, and this book was an outpouring of love from a grieving father to his lost son. But maybe it could have been better written by someone slightly outside of the story, maybe working with Roman Dial. The inconsistencies and repetitions, as well as the long, confusing cast of characters, prevented me from fully enjoying it.