This book was unlike anything I have ever read. I was very emotional while I read it. As a mother, it quite literally ripped my heart out when the author described how the mothers "left" their children. And then when it started happening to Vera, I felt her pain and anguish as she made the decision to leave on her own terms. The part where she described how she missed her daughter was almost too much for me. I appreciated the authors ability to invoke such emotion through her writing. Sometimes we all need to read a book that will give us a good cry. This book certainly did that for me. I loved how descriptive the book was as well. The town sou did very interesting. I wish she would have gone into more detail about the significance of the fruit that they ate there as well as the dirt eating. I also wish she would have mentioned if the "regular" people who lived down the mountain knew about those in the town. Over all I loved it!