I havn't finished this book, and Im not sure when Im going to either. Considering it's a good 615 pages long! But the reading is not hard at all, making the intimidation go away. The beginning seems slow but it's only to introduce to you John's situation and how he got to where he is now. The characters all have something unique in them in a way that you can relate to John. His family is some what weird. Has a strict grandmother, has cousins that you get excited to see, but once you get to see them you want to go home. Alot of things like this make it easy to read and understand. There are no hard words and the authur doesn't go on for 15 minutes just describing a small event. But he gives enough to make you think and sometimes get a chuckle at it.