This book reads like a memoir and it took me until the end where I realized it was fiction. It's that compelling. I was totally hooked on the main character who moves to Berkeley from the East Coast to in a way, follow in the footsteps of her mother who was a student at Berkeley and an activist. Her mother ended up teaching at a university so the narrator too decides to join Teach for America. Her love of teaching and exposing her students to poetry she loves falls flat. Many hurdles including not getting a classroom but instead a corner of the cafeteria to teach in, start to puncture her idealized dream of being able to reach her students. She ends up at a start-up and along the way as it pivots away from its educational mission, she feels unmoored. When her grandfather dies she heads back home and tries to imagine where she belongs. I won't give any spoilers away, but will say I really enjoyed going along on her journey of discovery.

Thank you to Netgalley and She Writes Press for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

Definitely had aspects I liked, but overall just felt really slow and sad. I was hoping for more hope but the main character just felt like too too sad in my opinion.

Let me start by saying that Silver’s writing style is beautiful in some places, she really captures some vivid imagery that draws you in. With that being said I don’t think the premise of the story was for me, the ending left a lot to be desired and I felt unfulfilled. Although this is not my usual style of literature so for some this will be a fantastic read.

You know, at first I thought I was reading a real memoir. The author's voice was clearly coming through loudly here. This is a coming-of-age story in which a daughter is overly impacted by her own mother's coming of age. The stages of life that the daughter goes through are filled with apt cliche's of just what life is like for a privileged but daring young woman. Silver writes descriptions quite well and this makes it so easy to draw a picture in your mind as you read. Do we like the characters are not? In the end it is a slice-of-life story of one young woman. I was hoping the time frame would extend into the pandemic to see how she handled that new challenge, but sadly the book ended before we got there. It's an interesting read and the writing is exquisite in many sections of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I will be curious to see what else the author writes.