I was tempted to abandon this book after the first chapter, but I didn’t want to pick another book for the square I was reading it for. A lot of animals and a lot of people die in this book, and I don’t feel that the payoff of the story is worth the suffering. There’s also rape, and insane levels of child abuse. What is almost worse is the way that the children come to devalue their own lives as a result. I was rooting against the main character for most of it. In retrospect, I’m not even sure the story makes sense when you start to think it through. I mean, I don’t actually see why all the cruelty was supposedly necessary given the ending.
I debated between one and two stars but I’ve rated books that I’ve enjoyed more at two stars, so…
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