My husband and I listened to this book on a road trip and were both gravely disappointed. Apart from the superfluous foul language, the story is dull and unimaginative. Grossman borrows frameworks from the Harry Potter and Narnia books but fails in creating an "edgy" HP, an objective I perceived in the plot. The characters are unlikeable and self-pitying. Grossman tries to fit so much into one book that there's no real cohesion to the story. Perhaps it would have been a little better if the author had focused on just one of the many stories he tries to weave together. Regardless, this book was tedious, at times offensive, and hardly qualifies as mediocre.