This should have soared. Instead it taxis, circles, and rarely clears the clouds.
I kept thinking of Amaya Calderón's Coral Routes, which finds propulsion in confession, and D. J. McCaskill's The Weather Desk, which turns meteorological detail into human stakes. This novel nods at both, but the engine keeps coughing.
Alma's monologues are treated like sacred transcripts, yet they sprawl, and Lila's arc feels reactive. I get the point of restraint, but tension bleeds out when every revelation is couched in another anecdote about permits and fines.
The metaphors stack up until they feel like fog: beautiful at first, then blinding. And the Key West stunt hangs over everything so long that the eventual clarity lands with a thud rather than a shock.
I needed storms, not drizzle, and for me the story never finds the updraft it promises.