This story overall could have been lovely. Had the author chosen to explore the relationship of an adult who wanted to love and care about two children who were handed a dreadful situation in life, this would have been a heartwarming and thought-provoking novel. Had the mid-20s male character opted to exercise rational adult boundaries with a child and encouraged her to seek psychological support for her trauma rather than engaging in illicit sexual activity with a minor child who was emotionally and psychologically stunted by her experiences, this could have been a great book. But that didn’t happen. Instead this author attempted to evoke pity and understanding for an adult who took advantage of a child and added to her trauma-filled life. And the fact that the other adults in this story were written to approve and encourage such behavior is deplorable. I don’t care if the setting was rural, drug-addled 70s and 80s. Pedophilia was wrong then too. This “modern” attempt to normalize pedophilia is disgusting. No adult should seek sexual gratification from a 13yo child and the use of explicit language to describe such acts is deplorable. I listened to this novel thinking how lovely it was that an adult was finally showing those children love and understanding only to have that ripped away with rape of a child.