Ruh roh. 
 Sorry, Ben. And Kelly. And karen. This book really did not do it for me. In fact, that is kind of an understatement; my two-star rating is generous in that I actually feel sort of bad for disliking it as much as I did. I know it hits certain people on an emotional, gut-deep level and I am not arrogant enough (I am arrogant, just not arrogant enough) to universally proclaim its lack of literary value. My point is that I've often had people come onto my reviews and say, "Oh, thanks for letting me know this book sucks. Now I can take it off my shelves." Don't do that! Don't not read this book on account of this review. It is only a reflection of this novel's impact on me, and I am just one person. And a relatively unimportant one, at that. 
 Okay, so here is why this book sucks. First of all, I was genuinely liking it at the beginning. It is absolutely well written, and I enjoyed the narrator's slow reveal of his history with Sarah and Henry. I was all geared up to hate the narrator, too, who I thought was going to be some detestable marriage violator. (It can be a lot of fun hating awful characters, can't it?) Except as I continued reading, I came to realize that we, the reader, are perhaps not meant to hate Bendrix at all. In fact, I think we are being asked to identify with him, possibly, which sucks for me because I can't. I don't. So thanks, Mr. Greene, for taking the fun out of that angle. 
 And then the book shifts to Sarah's journal entries, at which point everything for me came to a grinding, screeching halt. Sarah is by far the lamest character ever created. Her internal struggle--the struggle that lies at the center of the novel's plot--is one that I could in no way relate to. It is during the description of this struggle that the novel takes a turn into an awkward territory of faith and the challenges presented on account of that faith (or lack thereof), and it was simply a huge turnoff for me. I've already returned this book to the library so I can't quote it directly, but certain passages, paraphrased, rang very shallow to me, like, "my love for her refused to accept (view spoiler)[her death (hide spoiler)], whereas my hatred for her had full faith in it." Oh, for fuck's sake, give me a break. Really? 
 Anyway, I am super sorry I did not love this book. The only character I liked was Henry and I got the suspicious feeling I was supposed to dislike him, so it was just an all around mismatch for me. But I will try to do better next time.