Pacing was slow in the first half, and I struggled to stay engaged until midway through the book. Rin had solid character development, but she started off so awful, and there were so many horrible things happening all the time, that it was kind of a very depressing read. It was hard to see how there could possibly be a good ending with so much torture and death, which is realistic in a book about the atrocities of war, but seriously rough to get through. It did end on a hopeful note at least.