This novel was really over hyped. The writing style is dense and plodding. There is almost no dialogue, instead there is tons of descriptions - of people, of events, of what the characters think of events and other people, etc. By page 25, I think I had read less than twenty lines of dialogue, total. There is something to be said for some dialogue - it picks up the pace, and gets us more involved with and knowledgable of the characters. I admit here that I ended up skimming the book, but I still found it not very exciting, and realized that I didn't like any of the characters enough to care what happened to them. The plot did not convince me to go back to reading it continuously, and the ending was lame. Save your money - if you feel a need to try this novel out, get it from the library.