I'm mad about Nathaniel
Sorry. I agree that the ending of the book is simultaneously too fantastic and too literal in a way that really undercuts the initially established and compelling theme of how the idealized fantasy of a rural lifestyle is a smokescreen for the normalized rampancy of patriarchal abuse in isolated small towns with no oversight, no recourse, and no escape when the shackles of survivor's guilt, generational trauma, family obligations, and financial ties lock around you before you even notice them snaking around your limbs, especially when you're in such a vulnerable position as a financially dependent and widowed and newly pregnant single mother, and with nothing but a name that's forbidden to speak about but that gets whispered on the wind in a haunting and ominous voice to suggest that something, anything, is wrong at all.