This book is the breakout star of 2025 with the vast majority of readers loving it. I was sure I would love it too, but somehow it didn’t work for me. It starts off with a strong beginning – on her way to register the birth of her son, Cora, who is suffering serious domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, must choose between three names, Bear (her daughter’s choice), Julian (her own preference) and Gordon (after her husband). The name picked sets the family on three very different paths. However, the real difference between the outcomes doesn’t come from the names, but from Cora’s decision to stay or leave.
As it progressed, I found the book disjointed, hopping between the three alternatives and between the various perspectives in each one. Even the prose, lyrical and beautiful in parts, was made up of a lot of sentence fragments, which added to my sense of disconnect. Each section jumps seven years into the future, and with each version and each time shift, I had to reposition myself in the story, which prevented me from investing in it.
I felt that I was skimming over the surface of these people’s lives without ever getting to know them or, to be honest, even caring about them. I found myself untouched by the melodramatic events in each alternative; murder, manslaughter, terrorist attacks, untimely sudden death, unrelenting domestic violence, and wondered if these were meant to shock me into caring.
Instead, I found the characters two-dimensional, in particular Gordon Sr. who was a stock villain and Cora who was a paragon of patience and tolerance. The domestic violence seemed excessive, and I didn’t think it delved properly into the question of why people stay in abusive relationships. From the case I personally know best, it’s a complex situation; the abuser is rarely as unremittingly black-hearted as Gordon and what prevents the victim from leaving is their own mindset, conditioning and hope for change, not legal contracts and imprisonment with no access to communication or the outside world as was Cora’s situation.
I’m obviously in the minority but let me know what you thought of it if you read it.
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