leaning on the side of wonder

Ugh. What a heart-wrenchingly drawn out book. Never lacking on Ms. Suzuma's beautiful words or her painfully real depictions of a person in anguish, this one, however, falls short of the near-perfection of Forbidden. I think it was the overly drawn-out reveal of Matheo's life-changing incident that grew tiresome to me. Don't get me wrong, her portrayal of his pain & anguish were spot on & devastating - but it went on for so very very long...and then was brought up short by the ending. Which, you kind piece together what had happened & where she's going, but not the VERY ending. That pushed it all over the edge for me. After the build-up to the big reveal - and the build-up of a particular character's strength & steadfastness   throughout the entire novel, it just made no sense for me to end it the way Suzuma ended it. Still, Hurt was an engrossing novel by an extremely capable author, one who I will always jump at the chance to read.