3.5 stars. This was a very weird and conflicting read for me. It straddles several genres at once, being literary fiction, but also dystopian, horror, and a little bit of thriller. I was confused for most of my read, though most of that time I guess that was in a good way? Things were very unsettling and chaotic, leading to a very tense narrative that just kept building and building.

I struggled with the writing, especially in the early parts of the book. While it was atmospheric, there was a LOT of excessive description. The writing style was very wordy. I cannot stress that enough. That made it a bit more difficult to get through the read without finding myself bogged down in the things like a TWO PAGE description of what was purchased at the grocery store. It was obviously a bit difficult to get through and slowed down the pace. This seemed to improve as the story progressed, but I may have just gotten somewhat used to it.

Similarly, there were were some unnecessary scenes and several descriptions that were weird, out of place, and/or distracted from the story. There were some sexual pieces that felt completely off base with the plot and came across as just gross even though I'm not typically bothered by that kind of content. It was just awkward and handled a bit too roughly.

Though it started slow, things really did get interesting and gripping in the last third. I was VERY wrapped up in the story, surprised at a few of the turns it took and was really enjoying myself. I was loving the mysterious, dystopian content, and the way things were starting to hint at some kind of sense. Then it just ended. It was seriously jarring and left me unsettled, with a LOT of questions. Super, super confusing. It felt like there was so much more to explore. The story had finally hit its stride and then...end. Ugh.