Oh my word, what an absolute heartbreaker of a book! You know it's good when you can feel both hatred and pity for the same character over the course of one chapter. The first bit of the book was a bit slow, but it picked up quite quickly. I think there were definitely some drawn out chapters with details that, while important to the plot, did not need to be as long as they were. That said, the main story arc of this book was riveting, painful, endearing and nervewracking all at the same time. I consider that to be worthy of the 4 stars.