I read this book because I had to, but I was suspicious from the very first pages. It has no soul at all: I have got the impression the author picked up the subject and wrote the novel as a final paper for the creative writing course she was attending. The whole thing is very flat and it soon becomes extremely boring: Barton seems to be churning out the amount of words required, but her heart is not in it. Avoid it, if you can, and, yes, you can read Swift or William Golding - you'll learn what powerful literature is.