3.75 stars

This is a moving verse novel written from the perspectives of two sisters, both of whom are dealing with the aftermath of their mother's death, father's remarriage, and another source of more recent familial loss.

I wish I had gotten to know the characters a bit better, but I did enjoy learning about their relationship, their independent processing of their mother's death, and their evolving sense that there could be some kind of healing on the horizon. The final scene did a lot for me in ramping up the overall quality of the work. I love the symbolism, find it totally appropriate for the audience, and think this is a great representation of how grief comes in many forms.

Overall, this is a pain-filled but hopeful work -

Two high-school/college-age sisters negotiate their grief for their mother and their stepmother's miscarriage, in free verse. I'm sure some readers will feel sympathy for the narrators, but they remained too generic for me to invest in them or their emotions very much, and the ending is horribly trite. I do think the verse form is aa good one for the story being told. The production values are low: the font for the narrators' names and page numbers is dated and unneeded, as are the faux-stains on the corners of the pages.

As a teacher I'm always looking for good books told in verse and this is one I will recommend to my students. Grief, loss and love are all present themes and it was a quick read. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.