A quiet melancholic tale of memory and history between three school friends, nested inside a larger, eerier tale of modern expediency. Or are they really the same tale. Almost? Sort of? I'm not really sure. There's a masterful conservation of imagery that keeps it together, but there's also just generally a pretty narrow image-set. It's a voice thing: the narrator is reflecting on the past throughout, sifting through memory and arranging them for the listener/reader as she goes. As such, the book has a tendency to ramble and drift in a detached, distant manner without a lot of descriptive detail. Maybe this helps underscore the vagaries of memory; it certainly helps obscure the bigger picture so that it emerges with slow disquiet, like an iceberg from fog. But is it the best way to tell this story? Or any story? (The remoteness tends to keep the readers thoughts (and it is a provocative narrative) and emotions (and it is an emotive narrative) at bay, somewhat.) So, I'm not sure. 
 ... 
 Earlier reactions: 
 Weird. The central "mystery" is fairly evident from the start, yet I'm still unable to put this down. I suppose this reflects on the relative importance of the revelation vs. the characters and set-up, as they are revealed. Or perhaps we are to learn the truth as the characters do: so that by the time our suspicions are confirmed, they seem unremarkable, like something we have always known.