I really, really wanted to give this book 5 stars! I had to keep reminding myself how hard it was for me to get into it—I actually started it once, at least a year before finally reading it, and couldn't get past the first chapter. If you have this problem, keep going! It's worth it.

This is one of those books that makes me wish I could go back and retroactively rate a lot of other books lower, just to demonstrate how good it is by comparison (looking at you, Hunger Games series!). It's not that the other books are bad; this one is just that good. I will definitely seek out other books by this author.