Radhika Chugh

It’s clear, every person I meet will be held up to Atlas now. That’s the only reason I enjoyed this book. That and the calmness with which some intense situations were handled by Lily and Atlas individually. I really needed that calmness so it worked for me, but it’s certainly isn’t a sequel we needed. I’d have loved to read more of Emmy and how she grew up, spoke her first words, have a personality. Also would have loved more of Alyssa, Theo, Marshal, Josh, Rylee. Didn’t care for Ryle as much.

I devoured the book in 7 hours, and wept through a lot of it. Felt a mixture of emotions - happiness, love, anger, shocked - just a very well narrated roller coaster, if you will. Colleen has done a fantastic job. 7 hours is all it takes to completely change your perspective - about breaking the pattern before it breaks us. It ends with us, as it should. It was hard hitting. I can only imagine how difficult this would have been for Colleen to write - building characters and taking bits of situations that have actually happened around her. Bringing perspective to the ‘why’ that many of us usually ask. I have too. Why is that person with their abusive partner at all? But as Lily’s mother so beautifully put it - The last thing you want to do is lose sight of your limit. I wish this upon so many mothers, to break the pattern, for how it etches in young brains of their children and manifest in different ways. Thank you, Colleen. I didn’t know I needed to read this until I read it.