infryq@books.theunseen.city reviewed The Book of Sand by Mo Hayder
Both deeply affecting and strangely tatty
4 stars
Content warning Oblique references only, but this book is significantly susceptible to spoilers.
The characters lift off the page and are addictively easy to identify with, which makes it all the more heartbreaking that the rules of the game are so arbitrary and trivialized. It feels like a betrayal; how dare the author subject these people to such thoughtless, disposable treatment. And yet, how hungry to better know them.