This is a novel about a lady with worsening dementia. It is in the point of view of her eldest son who, although lives elsewhere, visits regularly in order to help his sister who has been charged with her care. Although, heavily based on real life, this is a work of fiction.

I really enjoy novels like these, those without a real plot, but focus on a character or characters and how they change and grow over time. It was heartbreaking to watch the mom progress from forgetting a little but being aware, to completely lost. The sense of frustration from the sister who was there day in and day out was undeniable, albeit infuriating. She quickly lost all empathy and patience, which as mad as it made me to read, was probably so incredibly accurate. The feeling of uselessness that the main character felt and his feeling of loosing control were understandable as well. It was very obvious the author wrote from a place of personal experience and he did an excellent job of portraying that through these pages.

This is written like a memoir. Each chapter has a title and then a subtitle of Short Take, Medium Take, or Long Take to give the reader an idea of how long the chapter will be. I found this delightful. I like the differing lengths of the chapters. I did not really care for most of the Long Takes though, especially toward the end. These long takes were sometimes 40 pages long! That is a bit much, especially without breaks within the chapter. For the type of book this was (not plot driven) choosing to have a 40 page chapter makes the book drag on and all it did was make me loose interest. Also, it was inconsistent. The difference between a Short and Medium take was maybe a page, but from Medium to Long was more than 30 pages. That is really my only struggle with this book, but it really affected my ability to enjoy the novel as a whole.

I would still highly recommend.

***Thank you NetGalley, Rootstock Publishing, and Ronald-Stéphane Gilbert for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.***