I abandoned this at page 90, and it took me a couple of weeks to get to that point. 
 This was too slow; almost nothing was happening for most of the book. Also, I've watched the film before reading this, so I know how everything pans out, basically, and I didn't like it. 
 I really hate the concept that Briony is paying for her whole life for what she said at such a young age. Yes, what she did was bad, but she was a child and children see things and twist them accidentally for events to fit what they see - I don't think what she did was done maliciously. As well as that, Briony's character annoyed me, her narrative voice grated on me. Perhaps this was because she was a child, but she is not treated like a child later in life so I do not see the point. 
 I also don't want to waste my time reading a book about the romance between two boring characters who I feel nothing to recommend them. Robbie and Celia were boring and whiny and did nothing for me at all ; I didn't see a large amount of personality or foundation for this fantastic romance. 
 I actually didn't feel for any of the characters. I didn't dislike them, I just didn't care about them and was bored, all sitting in their hench ass decaying house whinging and bitching and swimming and having a nice dinner party with some oh-so-taboo sex in the library. BORING Get on with the story, please! 
 If I could have made it to the event that changed everything (view spoiler)[- and I did completely and utterly hate the fate of Lola, too. Is McEwan such a downer that he could not have at least one happy part to his story? - (hide spoiler)], perhaps I would have come to enjoy it. But, I couldn't, so I'm happily discarding this book. My days of forcing myself to finish things I don't want to are over.