People have criticised the book for covering too many events very briefly. I agree that it does cover a lot of ground but I didn't find that distracting and it didn't detract anything from the plot for me. In fact I enjoyed seeing everything happening to Ellie's family. Yes, some of it was a little unrealistic, but when you think about it some people seem to have lives that are full of unlikely events. 
 I would have given it a rating of 5, but I really wish the ending had lasted a few pages longer as I felt that the storyline with Jenny seemed to just rush to an end rather quickly, even though it had been taking place throughout the whole book.