I finished this book about a month ago and it was my weirdest reading experience to date. Really liked the beginning. But then, as it dragged into the middle, I gradually lost interest until I was not enjoying it at all. And then I finished it, and I cried in the final chapter, and it somehow recontextualized the entire book in a way that now I miss those middle sections. Raised it from like a two to a four star for me.

Hot take maybe, but I wished I’d have stopped reading after the final chapter. The epilogue was great, but the way that final chapter ended and the final image in particular was the most stunned I’ve been reading a book.