I kept getting sidetracked trying to figure out if everyone becomes a building when they die? I kept going off on tangents about the idea, and about the idea that one's death blueprint is on your skin and that special people can re-architect it, that I think I might've missed some important bits of the story.
I didn't understand some parts, again because I think my mind was chasing the weird idea down rabbit holes. I didn't understand the bit about her family coming and finding a featureless building. Did she die to become a vault to protect her husband's body from being carried away? Or what was that?
Hmm...
I have to admit, In the early stages of this one, I was thinking, "Oh no, not another story about forcing Granny into an old folks home so the grandkids can sell her house!" But as it went on, I was hooked in by the idea of people turning into buildings instead of dying.
I still think the story would have been at least as enjoyable without the Bully Granny out of her home trope, but perhaps that's just a matter of taste. I just feel like I've seen too much of that cliche.
When things happen commonly in real life, I don't think of them as cliches. It would be weird to avoid topics that we see frequently just because we see them frequently, right?
I've seen this happen with two grandparents as they slipped into dementia or Alzheimer's. In some stages of the condition it's very hard to tell how advanced it is, because the person can seem very bad one day and entirely lucid the next. This often results in arguments among the family about whether the person can take care of themselves or not. I have not been part of making that decision for anyone but I've seen other people argue over it, and it can be very difficult to tell when a person going through that is safe to live by themselves, or safe to live with a little assistance, or needs more care than that.