It seem like most reviewers either loved this book or did not like it at all. I find myself falling somewhere in the middle. Most of the complaints are valid the first half of the book moves very very slowly. After about the middle the pace picks up and the ending feels almost a little rushed. That's the bad.

Now let's discuss the good shall we? We shall.

Some negative reviewers site an overabundance of description as a bad thing. I agree some authors overdo it ([a:Tolkien J. R. R.]for example)but what made the book four star worthy for me was the atmosphere. Morgenstern is a genius for atmosphere. It's summer, I live in the desert, if an author can made me shudder with autumnal chilliness I'm sorry but bitch can write. She doesn't focus on every tiny visual detail which is what I think can make description tiring. She wanes poetic about smell and sensation, what does it feel like. She puts ambiance into words and that's impressive.

There is also quite a bit of narrative juggling, I'll admit it was part of what made the first half so slow for me. She plays with perspective and time which reminded me a touch of [b:The Time Traveler's Wife|14050|The Time Traveler's Wife|Audrey Niffenegger|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1274656075s/14050.jpg|2153746] but with many more characters. She also includes a second person perspective scattered through out the text and I've never really seen an author pull it off for that long so that alone is impressive. I will say some of the characters rang a bit more true to me than others and the ending is very bittersweet, but overall it was a good read. I recommend it with a warm cup of cider on a nice fall afternoon.