Folding Paper & Spilling Ink

I think I would have loved this book if I hadn't bounced off the writing style so hard. It's a short read, so I was able to work my way through, but had the book been longer I think I would have gotten very frustrated. As is it took me far longer to read this slender novella than I expected. That said it was very affecting. Creepy and dreamlike in a way authors rarely capture convincingly. The childlike logic of the main character pulling me back in time to my own youth. So while I didn't care for the writing style it was still quite evocative and effective.

This book was dark and unsettling, far more so than I expected. The menace that grows as the story progresses was deeply upsetting, and the final ten or so pages were a punch to the gut. This didn't go where I expected it to, and that was actually great. Diving deep into how family can be toxic, especially when paired with poverty and substance abuse, this was a dark look at the damage being wrought in communities across the world, but especially within indigenous communities. This story unsettled me in the best possible way. I'm glad it has gotten the attention it deserves.