as usual the best part of mona awad's books is the writing. this book, maybe even more than bunny, was so well written you could feel miranda's chronic pain bleed through the pages to the point of feeling as exhausted as the characters around her because of it.
the use of the stream of consciousness is not something that i like outside short stories because its hard for me to hold my attention for so long (lispector this is for you) but awad's writing has so much emotion and (metaphorical) description that even if it seems too much its all so beautifully done that it works.
the discussions you can take from this book about chronic pain and how people (like grace) deal with it and how they respond to people like miranda are so interesting i'm still thinking about it.
i also love the slow descent into absolute chaos, especially with women *chef's kiss*

the things that made me give this a "lower" rating (although i still think above 3.5 is high) were some intentional elements that i don't like very much and an overall feeling i'd reading:

1. i needed more murder.

Spoiler

i think we got some solid ones (even though i still am not completely sure they're all dead...) but

i don't understand why some people like

Spoiler

fucking fauve

didn't die
2. is ellie a witch? who knows
3. i don't like open endings. i understand how some things don't need concrete answers but i need some answers to feel satisfied
4. this had a happier ending than i expected (and wanted)

to be fair this book's good at emulating the play itself. all's well that ends well is considered a problem play, neither a comedy nor a tragedy and this book emulates that. its "supposed to" be funny and it isn't, there "should be" more deaths (like i wanted) but there aren't. this things are intentional (i'm assuming) but i still needed more.

if i had to recommend something similar i'd say catherine house by elisabeth thomas and black swan