cried, and I'm still cross about it

I cried. obviously I cried, I'm not made of stone and neither are you. that is not the same thing as it being good and I want that on the record before anybody comes for me.

Lou is great! genuinely! the family, the awful job, the tights, the entire texture of being twenty-six and stuck in a town where nothing is going to change unless you personally change it — all of that is really well done and I would happily read a whole book of only that.

but the ending is the problem, and it isn't a small one. the book decides very early what it thinks a life like Will's is worth, and then arranges everything so you arrive at the same conclusion feeling like it was inevitable and moving rather than chosen. and I don't think it earns that. he's the most interesting person in the story and he mostly exists to change her, and then the book cashes him in for the emotional payout.

I've read what disabled reviewers have written about this and honestly I'd rather you read them than me, they're a lot better on it than I'm managing to be.

five. it's readable, it made me feel a great many things, and I feel slightly manipulated about which things.

EDIT: Steph has read this over my shoulder and says I'm being pompous. maybe! keeping it.