Oh dear lord, is this book heartbreaking. I should have known after reading Betty. But I didn’t imagine that every single page could be so devastating. I borrowed this audiobook from the library and had to renew my loan three times. I knew I wanted to hear the whole story, but it was entirely too dark at times for me to listen to more than a chapter or two in one go.
The synopsis makes the book sound like a murder mystery, but I would say it’s more of a story about grief and loss and poverty and addiction. Arcade and Daffofil are twin sisters, two halves of a whole. They’re “raised” by their mother and aunt who are drug addicted prostitutes, and I use the word raised in quotation marks for a reason. Their lives are an absolute horror from the neglect to the emotional abuse to sexual abuse, and their own dissent into addiction. You quickly love these girls so much, and are devastated by how their lives progress.
The ending was not at all what I expected and it punched a story that would have been four stars up to five stars for me. I don’t think I’ll stop thinking about this book for a long time. It really helps to build a lot of empathy for people who have found themselves in similar situations.
This is a book I will not forget for a long time, what’s the last book you read that you can’t stop thinking about?
openmypages 