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"How could grief be alive, how could she have felt it gulp gallery air."

- A complex, honest, and poignant story about a mother and son, both grappling with harrowing pasts and bleary presents: a mother who abandoned her son and a son struggling to be a father.
- This book has so many layers to it. It was told in two POVs and plays around the past (as early as the 1960s) and the present, the year 2016.
- In Yuki's pursuit for belonging, she found herself SETTLING for less than what she deserved: a shitty friend, a relationship with a physically abusive man old enough to be her uncle, and a job she didn't want.
- Also dives into how it's not always that easy to break free from a problematic and abusive situation.
- Jay has abandonment issues because of his mom, Yuki. Which kinda resulted in him being at arm's length to his daughter, to the point that he was contemplating about leaving his wife and daughter.
- POVs were told in Jay's and Yuki's from past and present
- Writing is great! Super evocative and haunting.
- I loved how the book had a calm resolution to end the whole story. There wasn't exactly closure, but it seemed like a beginning of one.

Trigger Warnings: mentions of war, bullying, abandonment, eating disorder, physical abuse, car accident, death of a family member, pedophilia, suicide, suicide ideation, cutting, cheating, intentional abortion, mentions of euthanasia