Really disliked the book's first three chapters. Its biggest weakness it its treatment of characters; instead of using the plot to illustrate the protagonist by her choices, words, and attitude, the writer is constantly spelling out the character analysis for the reader. The interpretation follows in step to the description. It's like the writer wanted to avoid at all costs that the readers might misinterpret her deep message by explaining it all right away - the (often on-the-nose) symbology, the narrative parallels to other works of literature, and the recurring themes. The great irony is that the central character concept, one should say, is actually not that interesting. For the first three chapters, she remains what is essentially the daydream product of a bored urbanist who envisions an inexplicably intelligent, whimsical, ultimately unremarkable, "totally-not-like-the-other-girls" girl. Infuriatingly, while the book's narrative (quite entertainingly) switches between a dinner party in 2016 and the protagonist's uni years in Oxford (where else) with the protagonist's personality fundamentally changed between the two temporal settings, it never actually becomes clear how exactly the central character became who she became. Thus, the character study, spelt out and dissected by the writer herself, fails. 

Other issues pertain to the book's central themes of certainty and uncertainty in the face of the divine (ironic, given how little uncertainty the writer allows for regarding her character concepts). The book wants to explore the liminal spaces of sceptical belief, faithful atheism, and the mystics of poetry and spirituality. Unfortunately, for most parts, the result is merely a vague, un-defined, superficial mélange of esotericism, providing no answers and little emotional echo. There are some discussions that touch upon some interesting aspects of the meeting of beliefs in modern Europe and Turkey, which go to the book's credit, but they don't save it from its mass of triviality. 
Other themes concern Istanbul and its relation to Europe, modernity, Islamism, the Middle East, and secularism. The writer's experience enables her to comment here competently, but I learned little new, and frankly, other Turkish writers have explored these themes at great length, too, and with some greater depth. 

The book's final fourth chapter carries some significant merit, though. While the unfortunate trend of over-explaining themes and characters continues, some expectations of the plot's conclusion are subverted, the ending is unexpected, and the parallel drawn (and explained in detail) between loving someone and believing in God is actually somewhat touching and reconciled me somewhat with the time invested in reading this kind-of-too-long book. 

All in all, this read like a writer's first novel (it isn't though), and, I regret to say, like written for Western fans of esotericism, Istanbul's "exotic" flair and Oxford's privileged classiness, and the study of womanhood, but from a psychological surgeon's perspective.