Koren

I don't think that I was expecting this book to be quite as intense as it turned out to be. Intense in a good way, mind you, but unexpected. Lena was my favorite of the girls, though in some ways Carmen's story caught my attention more. I didn't particularly like Tibby's story, but I thought she did a fantastic job on Bee. (I do, however, wish she'd been a little bit less vague about what happened between Bee and Eric. Not graphic details or anything, but I was never quite clear if they just made out or actually had sex. On the other hand, if she's not setting Bee up to be manic depressive, I'll be incredibly shocked. Seriously.) Overall it was an awesome book, and now I need to get my hands on the other three. :)

I liked the book quite a bit... right up until the last two or three chapters. In part, I wasn't entirely happy with the ending (I hated the way it worked out)... but I think that the bigger issue that I had was the abruptness of the ending, and the fact that we didn't see anything beyond that point. I was honestly reminded in the last few paragraphs of Harlan Ellison's “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”... for a book that had up until that point balanced it's lessons of consequences for one's actions with love and hope, it seemed to abandon all of those things at the most important moment.