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Amanda is a 20-something woman, adopted at birth, who goes in search of her birth mother. This sets off a complicated chain of events involving everything from polar bears to murder. Rene Denfield has a way of taking wildly unrelated events, unfathomable coincidences, and her real world experience in criminal justice/foster kids/trauma to concoct beautifully written, tightly plotted, and deeply characterized stories. See two of her previous books which also add magical realism to the mix, The Child Finder and Butterfly Girl, for other examples. While the plot twist and big reveals are obvious from early in the book, the book isn't really about those or dependent on these devices so the obviousness doesn't matter. What does matter is the commentary on how we treat children and animals, often under the banner of help. My one slight criticism is setting vs language: Denfield uses British slang for some things like loo and flat instead of bathroom and apartment, which is odd for a book set in the Pacific Northwest. It's a quirk that doesn't detract from the story but distracted me as the reader. I highly recommend this book, but also issue a warning as bag things happen to both children and animals.