This novel was February’s read for the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club and they even hosted an author chat with Liz Moore! I’ll admit that the blurb for this book didn’t grab me but I decided to give it a shot as this was the first author chat the club had hosted since I joined!

The bulk of this story takes place in 1980s Boston and focuses on Ada, an only child of her brilliant father, David, who runs a computer science lab. As David’s mind begins to fail him, Ada is taken in by one of David’s most trusted colleagues. Soon, questions start to arise about David’s past that he can no longer answer and Ada is left to grapple with these mysteries as they follow her into adulthood.

This book was a pleasant surprise for me and I enjoyed it more than I expected to! I loved how the writing captured this father-daughter relationship and I really enjoyed the pacing of it. I felt that the alternating time periods added to the story and never muddled it like some books tend to do. Part of David’s life also touches on a part of American history that, as a Canadian, I didn’t know a lot about, so that was a surprising and welcome addition to the story. I will say that the ending was not my favourite and didn’t really do much for me. I was more interested in following along with Ada as she uncovered more answers about who her father really was.