This book was like a car wreck: you try not to look, try not to look, and, ultimately, you look. I read the entire book surprised most of the way through that I was still reading as it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. Not pleasant, not likable, but then I've read books without a single character I've liked (e.g. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling) that I still enjoyed; or if not enjoyed, appreciated. The main character in this novel, Thea, waffles between being a mean and nasty sort of person and "just a girl" who was raised in a very remote fashion and not exposed to life in a way that would educate her properly on how to be in the world. It took me almost 100 pages just to get used to the writing style which felt very disjointed and odd, with short sentences, a lot of punctuation, and which were often repetitive. It felt like reading a tragedy although you hope that with Thea's description of her adult life she really did live her life so that there is some brightness in this mostly gray novel. Even the cover is gray and, given the time period, I feel like I picture the worlds described as gray. The ending was succinct and fair, which made me want to give this book closer to 3 stars, so maybe 2.5 altogether.