FALLS APART AT THE END
920632
This book was going along with a good 4-star rating and then fell apart at the end. The story wrapped up too quickly and too gimmicky a fashion, bringing my rating down to three starts. The tacked-on epilogue went so far off into the deep end I dropped my rating another star.
4440018
I liked this book in the beginning but then the end made absolutely no sense whatsoever. I re-read the ending chapter and the epilogue at least three times thinking I had missed the string that held the whole thing together realized there was no such string. It just made no sense at all.
2094412
This book is a puzzle: totally intriguing and engrossing until the very end at which point it absolutely falls apart. I don't think I have ever read such a disappointing ending. Why did you do that Ms Costeloe, did you become bored with your novel? It needs two more chapters at least: one showing how the 4 year old twins got to England unaccompanied on the kindertransport and one showing how Ruth got out. And Helga deserved more than a sentence merely telling the reader she died. How? When? Who took care of the twins afterward? How did Edith arrange things afterward? The detail in the rest of the book was precise and convincing and then you simply let your novel fall apart. I would have developed the German character Peter as a vehicle for helping the twins and Ruth get out. But-you needed something! I gave the book three stars but would have given it five if you had written an ending with the same energy and detail as the rest of the book.
2248529
While this is an enjoyable read, all is completely lost when the book abruptly ends. It's almost as if the author took a bathroom break from writing a chapter and never sat down again to finish the book. How was this even published? It makes absolutely no sense. There is no sense of closure. The book literally ends just as the characters are taking shape. It's a shame because the writing was decent and story could have offered much more.
803057
It told a good story till the ending. Thumbs down  on the way it closed out
1050107
I enjoyed the first 90% of the book.  The ending was all tied up too neatly too quickly.  I almost expected a "The End" posted on the last page.
976755
Alright. The attempt to wrap it up/tie them all together at the end failed horribly.  Good startles but no real substance.
3222223
I bought the paperback version of this book and it literally fell apart into about 6 different sections while I was reading it. The binding is terrible. The read was pretty good, kept me entertained.
4665378
Overall, this book was good.

Per usual the pacing and character development is rich, and Stephen King does a great job of telling a suspenseful story with a lot of different things going on.

I found myself enriched at select points unable to put the book down due to such rich backstory and character development.

The problem comes towards the last 20% of the book, especially the last 10%.  He goes so many different directions that there are loose ends that never get tied up, and the ending was terrible, just plain and simple terrible.

It would have been so much better if you never find out WHY the dome is there, or HOW it got there. Once this information is revealed, and mind you the conclusion to this story seems to be like the last 5 minutes of a movie, it ruins the book for me.  If the dome remained a mystery, I think this book could have been great (not "The Road" or "11/22/63" level), but still great.

Bottom line is this book just completely falls apart towards the end, and has left me just going "huh.....what happened" - and that's not a great impression sad to say
3290870
Having studied Josephus' War intently for the last several months, I bought the novel to help me flesh out all the characters I read about.  The novel was quite good and mostly faithful to the War until the last third of the book, in which there are ridiculous assertions regarding dual and triple identities of some important characters, there is major degradation of the primitive Nazarene (Jewish Christian) movement and its known history and characters, and the novel just falls completely apart at the end, totally anti-climactic and ridiculous.  The concept is very good - that Josephus is the Jewish Messiah and is cleverly working to become the Roman Emperor - but there is absolutely no resolution to it.  Three stars for the first 2/3rds. Wish the author would rewrite the ending.
3223787
I like the book until the end. The end was very disappointing. It seemed like the writer ran out of ideas. I would never read it again and am amazed they made it into a book.
2863078
Very nicely written but the end was a huge disappointment. Without giving away the end here, let it be said I wish it hadn't ended that way as it cheapened the terrific story.
91002
I really enjoyed the first part of this book. It was different than the rest of the series, in that I didn't feel like it was a constant recap of what had happened in previous books. BUT... the end was perhaps one of the worst endings ever. I felt like the author was given a certain number of pages and then realized, "Oh, crap, I'm almost out of my alotted pages so I better wrap things up!" I felt the same way about the Da Vinci Code. I threw both books across the room when I was done reading them because I was so disappointed with how they ended. Ugh. I'm glad the series is done.
2586393
The ending is terrible...what happened to Oscar?
I can't believe you would leave your readers hanging like that. Would not recommend.
2684159
I like the book. It sticks with the classic story although it's a bit paired down from the original I think. The sounds are good (except I don't think a fox barks like a dog). The problem is it fell apart and I had to tape it up almost immediately. It has something to do with the weight distribution, the front part with the sounds is too heavy for the spine. Because of this, I won't be buying any more of the titles in this brand and style of book in the future.
948525
It's a cute idea and I love the pull out pages. However, it fall short in terms of an ending. Basically, there is no ending. There's this whole lead up to Papa bringing down the moon and then the last page says something like 'and then the moon got bigger.' And....? It just doesn't have a good ending and leaves the child wondering what happens next.
451908
The novel falls apart after page 300.  I was looking forward to a great read after "The People in the Trees" but "A Little Life" turns out to be a disappointing, ridiculous mess.