i saw a comment the other day on a friend's review that was both amusing and galling: 
 Dammit! I can't trust the reviews of people who were given the item for free! Believe it or not, you're predisposed to like the product. 
 so before i get to the review part, let me just say that - yes, i did get this book for free, but that didn't predispose me to like the product (as i shudder at the word "product" being used to describe a book). yes, i am beyond grateful that i was given the opportunity to read this, since i'd already had it on my to-read shelf, but it's been out for months - i could also have been given "the item" for free by my local library. or, since it is a hardcover, i could have borrowed it for free from work. i get free books all the time - as gifts, as review copies from authors or publishers or on the free shelves at work, as people move out of my building and leave 'em on the radiator in the foyer, and although i am always grateful for freebies, i don't love them all or feel guilted into gratitude-uprating. and i don't think many other people do, either. most true book-folk bleed integrity, and it's pretty clear when a reviewer is genuinely enthusiastic about a book. 
 however, although i don't uprate-for-freebies, i do have a blanket tendency towards uprating because my pesky readers' advisory training has broadened my critical assessment faculties from "is this a good book to me?" to "can i identify the target audience for this book?" so a lot of books that are three-and-a-half stars for ME are shunted into four-star land because i know the book has an audience, even if it's not my particular favorite. and that's what reviews are for. my star ratings are slippery, inconsistent things, but the review space is where i can go into greater detail about what worked, what didn't, and who this book is "for." i don't get paid for my opinions or my reviews (but if someone wants to give me a job, i'm all ears!); i write them in order to help myself solidify my reaction, to have a record of my reading experience, to understand the book's appeal for others, and if my review either makes someone want to read the book or lets them know that it is not a book they would enjoy, that's all extra gravy. 
 all of that to say that i loved this book. 
 objectively, it's a really well-written debut novel. subjectively, it's got many plot points to which i could relate, not the least of which was, like nadia, growing up in a gossipy church-town and losing my mother to suicide at seventeen. so, yeah - there was a particular resonance for me that would have occurred even if i had shelled out the 26 bucks. 
 i can't think of anything i didn't like about it. 
 - the writing is confident and assured without being showy; without that self-conscious impulse first-timers often have to be impressive and "literary." there were so many perfect lines, observations, quiet truisms - i'd planned to use many pull-quotes, but it soon became impossible to even choose among them. but here, i will give you ONE: 
 Most of the milestones in a woman's life were accompanied by pain, like her first time having sex or birthing a child. For men, it was all orgasms and champagne. 
 - all of the characters are nuanced; mostly sympathetic, but capable of doing really selfishly shitty things the way we all are, so they come across as humans instead of plot-vehicles. 
 - the ending showed remarkable restraint and maturity for a debut; there's no tidy authorial bow wrapping everything just so. 
 - it's funny and smart and thoughtful and honest and sad and just ... smooth. she's an excellent storyteller, and it never feels overwritten or message-laden. although it's about death and abortion and crushed dreams and betrayal and abuse and all the different ways a person can be lonely or unmoored, it's not at all bleak, which is an accomplishment unto itself. 
 so yeah, i got a book for free. and i loved it. because it's a damn easy book to love. 
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 here's something awesome - i'd been seeing these book-box subscriptions around the interwebz, where you pay to get surprise boxes of books and other treats mailed to you a couple of times a year, and i thought - 'when i start making money and my cat is cured of expensive cancers, this is how i will spend my riches.' 
 and then - LO - i was offered a free sample box from quarterly: 
 https://quarterly.co/products/literar... 
 and it is so freaking awesome! 
 even maggie wants to check it out: 
 it has books and a mug and some tea and a sticker! the "main" book is bristling with post-it notes annotated by the author: 
 where you will learn fun facts about the book: 
 i am super-thrilled because i wanted to read this one really badly, and i am also looking forward to reading the two titles brit bennett selected to be friends with her book, although me and sula have some bad blood between us, because of the time a copy tried to kill me. more on that later. 
 this was indeed 
 and maggie's glad i took everything out of the box so she could have a new bed, even though this one is a pretty tight squeeze: 
 still reading and loving this one, but i wanted to drop my GRATITUDE! you people with money should get yourself a subscription. i love this idea so much!