I've had to think a while to give this a rating. Throughout the reading, it varied between 1 and 4 stars. I understand fully why a lot of people have abandoned this one. The first 150 pages are not far from torture. I made me think of Umberto Eco's The name of the rose. He made the beginning of the book as difficult to attain to discourage unworthy readers. J.K. Rowling's Casual Vacancy made me think of that. Not sure she did it on purpose. It felt like she had a precise idea in mind and she didn't care if people didn't like it. After the dreaded 150 pages were passed well I started liking it. The development of the characters is marvellously done. Nothing negative to say. Of course, none of the characters were likable people really. (Except the dead guy) Just true. No cliche either. At first glance they might have seemed that way but the detailed prose about how each character thought, acted and lived totally forbid that. At the end I was thinking to put a 4 stars rating for the masterful plotting. But then I asked myself, what just happened? What was the purpose? The only answer I could come up with was: describing human nature...? But to what end? Not sure I totally got it so 3 stars.