Ugh. I love Patrick Ness. I love his writing style. I love his imagination. I loved this book up until the last 15 or so pages. 
 And then I felt it slip sliding downhill quick. Too quick. It was like an awful train wreck that you don't want to see and yet can't look away. 
 I finished it, but I knew exactly where it was going and almost decided to stop before it got there. But I'm no quitter so I persevered. I wish I had quit. 
 The ending ruined the entire book for me. I am not saying that I needed a definite "this is what happened" outline, I'm ok with some free thinking. But this was an awful cliffhanger that felt like a series starter but there's no sequels. 
 as for the three star rating: 
 The majority of the book earned a five star but the ending earned one star. I went with the average to be fair. I almost went with two stars bc I will never ever recommend this book.