I really hate giving up on a book and rarely do it. At about page 100 I thought I would stop, but decided to give it a go. Then there were some better episodes. Now at page 246 I just give up and have skimmed over the ending of the book. Meh.
Shriver's We Need to Talk about Kevin is one of my favorite books, so this one was a surprising disappointment. I found Shep sympathetic, but everyone else at best uninteresting, at worst absolutely annoying. I don't have to like the characters, but I need to see a spark of humanity in them, experience a moment of understanding them at some level. I just did not find it in this book. I felt like Jackson existed only to hold diatribes. I don't mind an opinionated author; I hate it though when it feels like the character only exists as a mouthpiece for the author and I am being lectured. And sorry, but the penis enlargement was just the straw that broke this camel's back, after the cancer and the FD-stricken Flicka. Nope, too many books, too little time to waste another minute on this one.