This book ended up really surprising me. 
 I'd heard mostly bad things about it. It's slow and has incredibly hatable characters. But I'd pre-ordered it and owned it anyway, so I might as well give it a decent shot. And it was worth it. 
 This book is incredibly slow. I honestly didn't get sucked in until the last quarter. That's when shit starts to go down. Also, most of the characters are horrible people. Howard and Shirley, Gavin, Fats, and Simon were probably my most hated characters. I did actually end up liking a fair amount of them though, much to my own surprise. Gaia and Kay, the Jawandas (although I had some problems with Parminder at times), Krystal, and Barry (who we only get to see through other characters, but I think he was honestly my favorite character despite being dead for most of the book). Everyone has their positives and negatives in this book and it made the characters all the more real. This easily could've been a real town and these easily could've been real people. 
 I was amazed that by the end I had tears streaming down my eyes. I hadn't even realized that I was feeling so emotional about it. It snuck up on me. 
 This book is perfectly thought out and well written. And yet I probably wouldn't recommend it for most people due to the pacing and abundance of unlikable characters. But for the right people out there, this book is...inspiring. It's hard to find the right word really.