“I’d taken a pink eraser to my childhood and blurred the pain.”

As this tale of loss, grief, shame, and hope unfolds, the main character Tookie finds herself in the middle of a mystery that she didn’t sign up for. Working in a bookstore as a seller, she must try to solve the haunting of the bookstore from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store’s most annoying customer, Flora who won’t leave the store. While trying to sort out this mystery, she also has to come to terms with the mistakes that she’s made in the past in order to move on to a life full of content, happiness, and peace.

This book was so good. I was hooked from the beginning to the end, the plot was super interesting and how the author developed the story along way made me glued to the page. Just when I thought I knew what was happening, it went in a completely different direction. Tookie was an interesting character and one that I didn’t like right away but as the story developed, I started to warm up to her after reading her backstory and seeing her development through the book. It has to be very challenging to navigate life after being incarcerated for such a long time, there’s so much that changed while being locked up and it can be overwhelming for people being released and trying to form a new life. While confronting Fiona on why she refuses to leave, Tookie has to face her past memories that are filled with grief, shame, sorrow, and anger and begins to realize that maybe there’s a reason why she’s the one who is trying to solve the mystery. I enjoyed how the story progressed and nothing rushed and the writing was beautifully written and it made me feel like I was in the bookstore. This is a really interesting and unique tale that will make you glued to the page and wanting more. Oh before I end this, the story does intertwine with real life events going on at this time with the pandemic and the George Floyd protests so please keep that in mind if you plan to read it since that was a difficult time for many people.