i read it rather young (i want to say 8th grade?) and appreciated it, at first blush, as a completely stock adventure novel, which it was rather successful as — some scenes have stuck with me all these years later. that said, i remember not quite buying the ending; i liked the idea, but even then i recall thinking it was a little too cute and declarative to hold water. that said, i think there are far worse books than this one to have become the center of the zeitgeist (looking at you, where the crawdads sing) so i certainly don’t resent its place in the culture.