mage4mage

This is certainly a book about people not being altogether good or altogether bad, and making an endless list of mistakes. I like that it isn't "everyone is really bad at heart everyone is awful endlessly" like Grotesque, and there was some hope for the main character learning from his mistakes by the very end.

Other things I really liked: Malloy makes a point of not just describing skin or ethnicity for characters of color, leaving undefined characters to be assumed white because White Is Default. He describes white characters as being such upon introduction, just as he does characters of other races.

The characters also have very realistic physical descriptions; there's no fantastical beauty or sex appeal, it's just average people with average people attractiveness (which can be very attractive). I liked how Sean's thinning, receding hair was described almost fondly by the end.