When a book starts with someone being released from prison I am intrigued. The fact that the events he went to prison for are still a mystery? Okay, yeah, I’m hooked. Then it turns out all the characters are theater kids (to the nth degree) and they bring the drama. Rio manages to blend performance and lyricism on the page in a way that has you imagining a stage. It’s brilliant.

”But that is how a tragedy like ours or King Lear breaks your heart—by making you believe that the ending might still be happy, until the very last minute.”