3.5 stars 
 This book brought two very distinct images to my mind. The first, that of a Christmas Carol. The second was a story I vaguely remember, though couldn't tell you what it was called. It was about a man who was constantly wishing away time. He was given a magic string, so that whenever he wanted time to speed away, all he had to do was pull upon it. He very quickly reached the end of his life, never having actually lived it. 
 The entire story was a blatant moral. Not that I mind. It was a good reminder, that I needed desperately. What I didn't like was that the whole story was broken into such tiny pieces, and it was narrated from such a distant third person view point, that I never really connected with any of the characters. They were faceless to me.