The Vast Clear Blue, by Karen Winters Schwartz

Human emotions, decisions, and actions are a lot more complex than the living could ever fathom. Books and movies that portray blacks and whites as clear choices, implying that the reader / viewer has to choose what is shown to be the only right, clearly do not understand how deep a regular human mind dives. 

On this point, The Vast Clear Blue is an absolute winner. Schwartz does a brilliant job with the plot and narration, setting clear expectations about the greys that are more common than the blacks and whites in regular human lives. As the story explores themes of betrayal, grief, loss, everyday trauma, coping, mental illness, societal judgment, and survival, we realize there is no right or wrong - a person does what they have to, to cling on to the threads of life when everything else is taken from them. 

The pace is perfect, and the characters, memorable. I had a great time reading this book. My thanks to Schwartz, and the publishers Red Adept Publishing, for gifting me with a copy of this book.