Well this book certainly took me a long time to read. Honestly I feel like the story didn't become terribly compelling until the final third of the book.

Maybe if you've never heard of Lord of the Flies it's a different experience. Or maybe if you read it in school and had to break it down chapter by chapter, symbol by symbol (it's just chock full of symbolism) it would be a different experience.

I don't know, for me I certainly liked different aspects of the book. The Jack/Ralph dynamic, the us-them of the guilt over Simon for Ralph's band. While I'm a cautious optimist at heart I definitely understand and respect the flawed picture of society and to a larger extent, humanity itself, that Golding paints. Maybe that's the crux of it. This is the kind of book that needs to be discussed and dissected. That might have made it a bit more enjoyable for me. But as it stands I'm glad I read it and I'm glad that it's (finally) over with.