"I think I'll read some fiction next," my spouse said at dinner tonight. He'd just finished reading A First-Rate Madness and was looking for a break from nonfiction. 
 "Well, the book I just finished was pretty good," I offered. 
 Our seven-year-old chimed in. "Oh, The Burn Palace?" he asked. "The one with the snake on it?" 
 I confirmed that he'd remembered the title---and cover art---correctly. "Yes. It was good, but it wasn't edifying." 
 And that's just how I think of this novel. It was fun to read and took a direction that was more satisfying than the one it seemed like it was going to take. It deals with the ways in which our assumptions cloud our vision to reality and cause us to make unwise decisions, which was interesting, but I'm not sure much of the novel is going to stick with me for long. 
 Of course, it's not always necessary to be edified by the books we read, but I prefer it if I am. Being entertained at the same time I am spiritually and/or intellectually improved satisfies me. It feels like multi-tasking. This novel was more uni-tasking. 
 It also provides a biased, unflattering, and inaccurate view of individuals with mental illness. Sure, not all of the homicidal characters are mentally ill, but the only mentally ill character is homicidal---and rather gratuitously so, plot-wise. Given that those with mental illness are no more likely to be violent criminals than those not diagnosed with mental illness, this characterization seems biased and inaccurate to me.