A recently published book is an adult debut for Anne Heltzel who previously aced her mastery of books for children and young adults. I wish all debuts were like that, with a firm, distinctive vision allowing for a capacious presentation of the material.

The plot follows a young woman who nurses scars of her horrible past when she was raised in a...let's say, very unorthodox way. Even though now she seems to live as her own person, it's not entirely like that because of the multiple traumas that hinder her from moving on with her life at its full. One of those traumas is how she lost contact with her cousin back in the day; surprisingly, the cousin appears out of nowhere, ready to reunite with and be there for the main character. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

Formally, the genre is a horror/thriller, but deep inside it's more like realism with a big emphasis on topics like

• women and their freedom of choice
• violence
• long-lasting grief
• interpersonal relationships
• job market and career
• biotech

The book rarely explores these matters directly, but designs situations that may raise questions in the reader's mind.

For example, is fertility just a biological feature or a prerequisite to an unavoidable duty? If a person lives with low morale, is there a limit to how low they can fall? To what extent violence and oppression of human dignity may affect a person's development?

The book delivers an intriguing narrative while discussing the aforementioned topics seamlessly, in a non-intrusive manner. Thanks to this, it doesn't feel like the author forcefully mentors readers, quite the opposite, indeed. If a reader wants to have an "easy reading" session by just following the key events, the book somewhat allows them to do so, leaving the main issues on the surface. That is a big achievement, revealing what a skillful author Anne Heltzel is.

That said, I recommend this book to anyone who's not afraid of facing a tight knot of emotions emanating tough questions.