This book was kind of a let-down. I was super excited to read it (audiobook) and I think the author executed on the story they wanted to tell but it left me unmoved, unconnected to the characters. I think the epilogue was my favorite part of the story? It's a nice trim little novel with a Agatha Christie type air about it and even the writing style but I had higher hopes. For example, I never felt anything about being in the Wastelands. Seems to me that was a critical basis for the emotional call of the story. It was just kinda there. The Wastelands serve to put in some crisis points to the story (the water sub-plot, the Gray adventure) but it itself wasn't compelling or interesting or villainous or scary or much of anything.