Book No. 46 of 2021
This book reads, and I don’t mean this in a pejorative way at all, like a children’s book for adults. There’s a very matter-of-fact yet meditative quality to it, and it doesn’t have the nervous tension that you’d expect from the premise.
Even though the book opens with its protagonists stumbling across the victim of a crime, and they spend the book trying to find out who the perpetrator was, the story is not about the aforementioned crime so much as it is about the bewilderment of growing up and discovering oneself. The secrets and struggles of three young adolescents learning new lessons about adulthood feel so relatable and poignant, rendered in all of their mundanity.
The real breakout star of this book is not any of the main characters, imho, but an incredibly sweet and charming dog. Lily, you’re the real MVP.
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This reminded me of Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book, another “children’s book for adults.”