This is a sweet book. There are so many poignant topics covered in it --- grief, guilt, extreme trials like a sudden divorce after a short marriage that was filled with workaholism and then finding out that you're pregnant on top of that (and other trials that spiral out from that one like having low self-esteem and wondering if anyone will ever want you), and being overwhelmed --- and I love the inclusions of the power of music, loving oneself, and the peace that learning more about Christ's Atonement brings in it, too. I also really liked how the start of the book immediately drops readers into the heart of things. And I liked details like imagining phantom touches by the Christmas tree (so real); the struggles that even Missy had been through, aww; finding out more details about the car crash over time; or how the person more victimized in a divorce finds fewer ties to their ex to be for the better (amen!) The plot twist in Chapter 32 was done really well, too.
I guess I'm just torn over all the characters outside of Meg and Matt who appear in this story. People truly can be more complex than their judgmental impressions come off as, and I do recognize that the specific way Church members in the book were acting wasn't totally off-base, especially if you're someone who knows the cultures of the BYUs. I guess their being overly judgmental of Meg, blunt, assuming, and toxically positive just bothered me a little! Everyone kept pushing themselves and/or their needs onto poor Meg, who was already dealing with so much. And I could tell that Larry and Johnny were douches from right off the bat. Now --- these facts in the book did make me agree even more with the statement that we women have a hard time saying "no." And they made me cheer even more over Matt's response to Sister Forrester in Chapter 33. I also found the character of Sonja to be the most realistic for some reason. But yeah. I'm just torn. I like to hope less people are like this in real life than this book would make it seem, and I can see the power even in just possibly be depicting caricatures. But golly...they would not be great people to have around. To think that Meg had to have them as a support system while already carrying so many other burdens...
All in all, though, I really did enjoy this book and found so much good in anything from the overall trajectory and spirit of it to all the little details put into its descriptions and characters. It is a good, hopeful, and meaningful story that I am glad to have read. And you can tell that I liked the main character I almost share a name with, too, since I've been defending her so much (;
Basically, if you like Latter-day Saint women's literature, like The Skeleton In My Closet Wears a Wedding Dress by Sally Johnson, Broken Things to Mend by Karey White, or Blind Dates, Bridesmaids, and Other Disasters by Aspen Hadley, then I guarantee that you will like this book, too! Kaylee Baldwin is a really good writer.