A beautiful and sad story about children, death, growing up queer/black in the South/New Orleans. It's a middle grade book and surprisingly deals with all these topics in a very nuanced and complexed manner. The dragonflies offer a magical realism aspect and I love how the magic seems to be connected to nature, and the setting really gave me some Princess and the Frog vibes!

Look, y'all. I cry at least once while reading a book more often than not, so when I tell you this is the book that made me cry the most ever, then -trust and believe- that was one heck of a benchmark. Needless to say, it was brilliant! It took me a while to finish, because I am not in the mood to bawl my eyes out every day, but this was such an impactful read! The first half I listened to on audio until I knew I needed a physical copy and then finished reading that with my eyes. The audiobook is also such a masterpiece of voice acting, conveying ALL THE EMOTIONS, indescribably delightful! I am so impressed with this book! Kacen Callender trusts their young readers with these very real feelings and says so incredibly much in a writing style that felt very age-appropriate to me. What. A. Book.