The first half of the novel was quite engaging, but once I reached the climax, the book took a turn for the worse. I'm not sure if it was the translation from Norwegian to English or that I didn't read the book in one sitting (still trying to figure out why i didn't like it as much as I wanted to). It was not the themes of grief, loss, and friendship explored in this book, but rather the writing and translation to English (maybe??).