I've read this last night, planning to start it just before I go to bed, read some few chapters, drift off to sleep, then continue it in the morning. Suffice to say, that plan didn't exactly work out too well and, before I knew it, I finished this book well into the early hours of morning.

I was, to put it plainly, hooked. The prose was sparse, yet so undeniably beautiful that one cannot help but read and read and read until one finally realizes that one is near to the finish of the book. It was, to put it plainly, quite spellbinding.

The characters, too, are well drawn-out and haunting. I'm pretty sure that Alice will stick with me for a long time. It was realistic--in fact, everything was realistic. Scott was pretty much alright with showing what happens in such a scenario. It might turn off some readers and maturity is a requirement to read this book. There's a lot of things depicted in here that a lot of people would rather be ignored, but things such as these are happening and Scott does a good job in painting a harsh reality.

Not to mention, the ending is the closest thing to perfection in prose. I did nothing but stare at that ending line because . . . wow, that is just a piece of good writing and everything all developed into that single line and it was just . . . well, awe-inspiring.

Actually, that could describe the entirety of this book: awe-inspiring.