I absolutely loved this book. It was haunting and sad, beautiful and redemptive. I don't think I've ever read a novel where each and every character wanted something different and in uniquely desperate ways. 
 The careful way the author builds the characters made me as a reader understand and sympathize with the motives of each of them. And because the characters are so well-drawn the cause and effect of everything that happens in the plot was so clear that I could feel things coming, but I was so wrapped up in the beauty of the writing and everything that was at stake that the story also, somehow, always caught me by surprise. 
 I think what was also so striking about the book was that it was just a tiny bit magical, but still so realistic that I could totally see everything happening in our world. The fact that everything had costs is something I appreciated too--that you couldn't become prettier without losing a bit of your smarts; that forgetting a person you once loved would literally affect your balance and grace. The world building was complete and absorbing. Cape Cod will never look the same to me again. 
 The pervading theme of fear struck a chord with me too: Kay fearing abandonment. Ari fearing grief. Markos fearing intimacy. Everyone in this book is afraid of something, and each portrayal is so honest and true that its frankly...scary. 
 All that to say--its the kind of novel that sticks with you, and I'm certain it'll stick with me for years to come. I already want to read it again.