My favourite part of this book is the author's note. 
 I'm not going to lie: I knew I wasn't going to like it. I found it for 79p in a charity shop, and since the praise for this book was so universal I thought I might as well give it a try. 
 ...Yeah, no. I hate this book. 
 First off, it's boring. It's one of the most dull books I've read of late, made worse by the fact that the only developed character was Finch. Everyone else had no discernable personality. I can't remember a single name of any background character it was that bad. And, whilst Finch was developed, I did not like his character at all. Moreover, once more I shall reiterate that I, personally, do not like reading about writers. This didn't necessarily contribute to my dislike of Violet, but I can't say it scored her any points. She was just bland. I can't think of any other word to describe her. 
 It's not poorly written. It's simple but it gets the job done. I don't understand how someone's voice can "turn slutty," though. I also detected a myriad of tropes intended to invoke a strong reaction in the reader - a.k.a. this book is attempting to subtly emotionally manipulate its audience, and I don't appreciate that. If I'm gonna cry, I'll cry because I want to, not because a book wants me to. 
 On the last third of the book: 
 (view spoiler)[I hate all these fucking treasure hunts that the dead characters set up for other people to follow when they're gone. It's entirely unrealistic and it's so overused in media nowadays that I couldn't give less of a shit about reading about it anymore. 
 Furthermore, I really don't like the appropriation of real people's epitaphs for fictional characters. I know Cesare Pavese is only mentioned in passing and as a comparison, but to compare a real person who committed suicide to a fictional one doesn't sit right with me. I just don't feel that's appropriate. 
 (hide spoiler)] 
 Also, the phonetic transcription for "Germ" was wrong: 'j' in the phonetic alphabet is actually a 'y' sound (as in yellow.) Unless her magazine was meant to be called Yerm. Attention to detail is important, kids. 
 Overall, though it was just DULL. SO DULL. BORING. TEDIOUS. I did not give a single shit about what was going on - and that's skipping over some of the more problematic aspects of it all. This book gets half a star at best.