Despite the darkness of its title, Desolation is a truly delightful and well-rounded debut novel from R.L. Caulder. Though the book touches on a variety of difficult (and potentially triggering) topics, Caulder handles those subjects with just the right touch of deftness, skill, and a healthy dose of levity that makes Desolation un-put-downable. “Oh shit! Sober up, Lana! Sober up! You’re talking to a Goddess!” Our heroine, Lana, is – in a word – dramatic. A spitfire. She’s a wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve kind of girl, and if she’s feeling strongly about something, everyone in the vicinity is going to know about it. She’s not always entirely relatable (who is?), but when she is, LORD IS SHE! I mean, who hasn’t found themselves drunk in a bathtub trying their best to act sober while speaking to a goddess? At her core, Lana is spunky, determined, fiercely loyal, and has a SERIOUS coffee addiction – and I think most of us can identify with at least some of those qualities. Even in moments when I found myself struggling to relate to aspects of her personality, the humor that Calder infuses into her reactions was just the push I needed to connect again. “A hand…