The reason I liked this book, even though the most common criticisms go is that the pacing is slow and nothing really happens, is because it reaffirmed my conviction that children are the scariest little shits on this planet. 
I truly believe that children and teenagers could be the meanest people ever and they become mean because of the adults in their life, who impose on them their bigoted values and the children’s brain distort them to the worst possible level. 
This book showed exactly that. Through so many incidents and dialogues, Jackson showed the mentality and behaviour of the kids and the adults. How snob they were, how little love there was among the neighbours and the families alike, how the upbringing differed for the boys and the girls. To me plenty happened throughout the book - the number of times I was sick of the response of the kids and the adults to certain situations. The characterisation was done really well. The horror of the ending won’t really hit home had Jackson didn’t put effort into building the characters so thoroughly!