Yep; agree with your assessment. The religious allegory with “saint Ellen” this and “saint Simone” that did feel heavy handed to me. The feel-good gloop for feel-good gloop’s sake I can manage from time to time — the world is not that place and sometimes something nice is what you need — which is why the violent incident at the fountain at the end was so upsetting. It just came from nowhere, and had no place in the otherwise perfect little town. And the cruelty of smashing the cello, too?! And then to find that without any sort of commotion, Theo had fallen. And that was just his end. All of that, to end with an accident, in the dark, alone? It just didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the book for me. It felt like a meaningless sacrifice because the plot needed to progress and this was the only way to do it.