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"Don't you ever wonder? Don't you ever want to know what it's like to be dead?"

Eleven year old Lucy is one of seven children. The oldest, Ethan, started getting into trouble in his teenage years; staying out late, stealing, taking drugs. His parents sent him to a juvenile center and therapy. One day he went missing and they haven't seen him since. Part of the family believe he is dead while the others hold out hope that he is alive and will return home at any moment. Now the next oldest child, Rae, seems to be going down the same path and Lucy, the third child, worries if she will be next.

The whole story is told from Lucy's perspective and I thought it was excellently written and felt authentic for such a character. We experience a mix of her general everyday thoughts along with her conflicted feelings about her family, her worries for her future, along with her more strange musings and experiences. The story is somewhat slow-paced although I found it to be a very compelling read.

There are some unsettling scenes in this book amidst the day to day family drama and the story slowly develops into something dark and sinister. Personally I think this element is a spoiler so I don't want to go into detail but it is also a theme that not everyone will want to read so if you want to know you can click on the part marked spoiler: (view spoiler)[child abuse and paedophilia. (hide spoiler)]

I thought this was a really unique read in both its story and its storytelling. It is ambiguous but that really worked for me and I didn't feel I had questions even though there were things left unanswered; I felt the ambiguity worked really well for the characters and the story overall. I know the child narrator and the ambiguity won't be everyone's cup of tea but if any of this piques your interest then I definitely recommend checking it out.