Our Share of Night

Strong, well paced prose that does make the book easy enough to move through, but some scenes are written extremely well with fascinating detail, while the quality of others vary because of what felt like a grab bag of tones. A mix of elements of an origin story, a father-son journey, then a coming of age tale make for a bit of a roller coaster but then it also sprinkles in the horror and supernatural elements (with the horror passages the peak of the ride). The book then later turns to a story about trauma and grief before it also becomes one about psychotic breaks, before a whole different stretch touches on a public health crisis from decades ago. And while the timelines were easy enough to follow, the disjointed through line and tons of unnecessary side/back story could make your mind wander during the read. Some of the actual magic and rituals (the reason most people probably picked up the book) are still the most intriguing parts of the story, but they are few and far between in the 700+ pages and there is also a weird abusive, love-hate relationship between the father and son that could be a bit off putting.