Actual rating 4.5/5 stars.

Lilja is twenty-years-old, a university student, and in love. The object of her affection refuses to be labelled her boyfriend, but that does not impede the onslaught of emotions that entangles their lives and infuses their relationship with one another. As Lilja continues to explore these feelings, along with her continued exposure to their focus, she loses touch of the individual she was before. Her happiness decreases alongside her freedom, with panic, agony, and distrust introduced in their place. But passion has always lived right alongside pain, hasn't it?

This is one of the most tragic and sorrowful yet quiet and reserved novels I have ever read. Each chapter measured in at no more than one to three pages and these limited insights to Lilja's actions and feelings were starkly opposed by the wealth of emotion and understanding they also delivered. It was painful to read this character succumb to the clever undoing of her person, by the one she trusted and adored the most. The violence was sometimes as understated and clever as the crafting of this novel and the outside perspective allowed the reader to become fully privy to just how slowly yet surely their desired result was delivered.

I shall close my review with an excerpt from the synopsis, that explains just how harrowing and painful, yet necessary and powerful, a read this is.

"With astounding clarity and restraint, Hjortleifsdottir sheds light on the commonplace undercurrents of violence that so often go undetected in romantic relationships. She deftly illustrates the failings of psychiatric systems in recognizing symptoms of cruelty, and in powerful, poetic prose depicts the unspooling of a tender-hearted woman desperate to love well."

A harrowing tale of domestic abuse told in a way that I’ve never really seen this depicted before. Realistic and withering, it explores the intimate details that are rarely seen abc quite frankly difficult to see. A must read for everyone.