I really went back and forth on whether to rate this 3 or 4 stars, in the end I went with the higher rating. Now I'll tell you why....Ellie was one hard person to like or relate to, in fact pretty much every character in this book was! But by the end of the book, you can't help but to feel sorry for Ellie and at least understand a little better of why she is the way she is. So even though I continuously thought, "Wow, these people are all assholes!", I realized that it was ok. This was a story about some screwed up people, who had a life time of scars and pain. Now I know Ellie especailly brought a lot of that on herself, but that's ok too. It was a story of pain, choices, consquences, anger, revenge, justification and even a little hope and love. It was original and clever. I also loved how whenever it flashed back to Ellie's past, she always thought of herself as "the girl", I thought it really made it so real to her character, someone that was detached and removed. And it was only 99cents on Barnes and Noble! Well worth the money and I truly look forward to reading the second book when it comes out! Also super excited that it will be a dual point of view book between Camden and Ellie!!!