This is certainly not one of my favorite books of all time, but I did like it. I thought it was very sad, and the tragic events at the end of the book did bring about redeeming qualities of some of the characters - and their relationships.
The writing style was interesting. Most authors seem to choose one narrator for the book, or have more than one narrator but then split them up into different chapters. JKR simply had everyone narrating their stories throughout the book. Was this technique supposed to help us understand each character more deeply? I thought it was confusing at times. I really had to think about who the character was when I came across a name - and then attach that name to his/her family - and then attach the family to their particular dysfunction.
Another thing that I found interesting is that even the characters I mostly liked (like Kay) gave me bad feelings about their character at times. There was not one truly likable character in the entire book! There were characters to like, somewhat like, not really like, feel ambiguous about, find distasteful, pity, and hate - but no characters to "love". It seemed like every time you start liking a character, another character thinks something bad about them (ie Kay was pathetically clingy to Gavin), which taints the character a bit. It was hard to know who to root for!
So, who do I think started redeeming themselves by the end of the book? Well, surprisingly, Samantha - who I did not like at all throughout the book. She messed up (having a ridiculous crush on a boy band member, kissing a 16 year old, not reaching out to Robbie when she saw him on the road, being a bitch basically) and she hit bottom, and then decided to turn her life around. She quit drinking, rekindled her relationship with Miles, and decided to start being a involved member of the community. Who would have guessed? Collin FINALLY reaches out to his son - thank goodness. Parminder gets a clue about Sukhvinder and seemed to be a kinder, gentler soul by the end of the book. Not all characters redeemed themselves however! Gavin was still a jerk. Howard was thankfully probably never leaving the hospital.
The book starts with a death that brings out the worst in people. The book ends with deaths that starts to bring out the goodness (or betterness!) in people. It was very cyclical - and I liked that. It's even more interesting that the original death was someone loved by all - and yet people were at their worst because of it; and then the deaths that end the book were two people that the community looked down on - and yet their deaths bring about kindness.
No, this book was no "Harry Potter", but I'm a fan of JKR and I'm looking forward to her next novel - whenever that may be. :)
Wendy's Rating: ***
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