Enjoyed but the ending is tough
341652
Beautifully written but the ending is too much of a cliff hanger for me - especially when we don't even have a date for the next book.  I like the progression that Darrow makes,  I enjoyed the revelations,  but in all seriousness,  I would wait for the third book to come out before reading this one,  as it just leaves you hanging with no where to go.

The first book was very Hunger Games-esque.  This book came more into itself and I enjoyed the growth of all the characters.  The writing is very fine,  definitely a cut above a lot of other books out there.

I will read the third,  just wish I wasn't left dangling so much at the end of this one.
4291220
I enjoyed this book - the characters were very complex and the narrative did a great job of really exploring the aftereffects of being abducted as a child. Carly May and Lois felt very real to me - their stories and emotions felt authentic. The only reason I didn't rate it higher is because the ending felt like such a letdown. I think I would still recommend the book to specific people I think would find it interesting, despite the underwhelming ending.
2187438
I really enjoyed the now-and-then structure of the book, and found the gradual progression of the relationship between the main characters to be the right combination of gratifying and frustrating. The ending was what it needed to be, but came on a little too abruptly, I thought.
432909
I really enjoyed this story. It reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. The abrupt ending made it difficult to find closure with the story. Just left too much hanging in the balance. Other than that, it's a great read.
2574412
I loved the story of Alice and the struggles she and her family endeared. I was however a little disappointed with the ending. I would like to have read more as to how long she survived the illness or how long before the family had to put her in a nursing home. I was just left a little empty with the ending and for that reason I gave a 3-star rating. Also there were so many medical terminology used which I found somewhat hard to follow and found myself skipping over it.
2103310
I liked this one a lot more than the last one because it had the things I love about the series - the family, the ranch, the community. The author writes so well about these things. However, I was disappointed by the violent quality of the ending - it was not an easy read. It was also the first book in the series that I felt was heavy handed with the author's religious beliefs.
2657564
Really enjoyed the story but the 'surprise' ending felt very forced and jarred me out of the story because it just didn't feel right.  The overall story was very good though.... just that 'surprise ending' to the book left me feeling like the author was reaching too hard for it.  Perhaps if there was a bit more foreshadowing of it it might have gone better.  Still, a good read that kept me turning the pages and look forward to reading the sequel.
3571467
I bought this book at my local bookstore without having previewed it online.

A challenging read. It took me way too many pages to get comfortable with all the difficult names and places, but I finish every book I start and soldiered on. Once I got the flow of it, the middle three hundred pages sailed and I began to really enjoy the story. Sure, there were some small things that were pesky like the transitions into present tense when the characters were having out of body experiences, and how every character seemed to know what was on someone's mind, but the plot and many subplots were chugging along great. I hit the last few chapters and things unravelled some. Magic that was too dangerous became commonplace and ran contrary to what I was lead to believe earlier in the novel. I had the sense that the author was desperate to try and tie it together quickly but couldn't make it fit. Up until the final seven or eight chapters I was thinking on giving this four stars. The rushed convoluted ending brought me down to a three. I bought this book at my local bookstore without having previewed it online.
359958
Great plot but somewhat long with a disappointing ending.
267954
I received this book for free through a program to review books, and I really enjoyed probably the first 3/4 of the book.  Well written, nice character development, and interesting story.  However toward the end, when things are wrapping up, the story became hard to read and understand, and even though I understand the point was to give us insight on the mindset of the character, I think there were better ways to explore this new development.  The new characters at the end explain things nicely, without needing the convoluted thoughts of the main character.

All in all, I liked *most* of the book.  I even liked the end of the story, just not how it was presented to us.
4476242
I enjoyed the book and characters and id have given 5 stars if the ending hadnt just kind of fallen apart.
4352675
Great ending.  Wonderful low country descriptions.. a bit dark in places
3510086
Great characters. A bit tricky there at the end though. It felt like the author was hurrying to bring it to a logical conclusion.
4503405
This was very funny at times, but it is also a good mystery.  I really liked the main character, but I was unhappy with the ending which is quite ambiguous.  Worth reading, though.
2650407
This was a fun read.  The ending was sort of strange, but I still enjoyed the book.
980716
I would have given this book 5 stars...except for the ending. It was a little hard to get into at first. The character Chance is composed of 5 individual bodies (or drives as called in the book) and the different perspectives were confusing. Which may have been part of the author's point. How does a conscienceness who experiences the sights and sounds of 5 individuals experience reality? Toutonghi did spend some time introducing us to the individual drives, who they used to be, their gender, etc. After the initial confusion, the story started to flow very well. It started off almost as a murder mystery, with high tech involved, but evolved past that a story of two people, Chance and Leap who come to love each other (without that actually being said). Love in a world where two people can join into a single person seems to be a difficult concept. I liked the author's very good attempt to understand how these characters, who have few limitations as we would understand them, try to overcome difficulties which we couldn't even experience. But as I neared the end I started to worry about the ending. With maybe 30 pages left, the story wasn't really resolved. This meant to me that either the book was going to be a series (in this case I didn't think this was justified) or the ending would be shoddy. Alas, the second was true. The immediate story was resolved and I though satisfactorily, but the set up for the ending emphasized that full resolution would take years. Instead of writing that ending, perhaps revisiting the characters many years later, the author chose to tack on a, what felt like a hastily conceived story which literally came out of nowhere.
3573979
I would have given it 5 but it was a bit long so off-putting to some people. The end was not as satisfactory as the first 750 pages...but I read to the end and was glad to do so. You will have favorite characters. It is not an easy read - but it is engrossing.