I knew going in that this wasn’t my usual “type” of book, so all things considered it wasn’t half bad. There was a lot of telling rather than showing and some moralizing, but I genuinely cared what happened to Merete and I didn’t actively dislike Carl even though he’s inarguably a jerk. Assad is kind of a caricature, but not one I found especially offensive (though objectively it’s not for me to say, of course), and he was portrayed as intelligent and hardworking. There’s also some ableist language, which I don’t want to dismiss as a product of the setting but which isn’t huge either.

I didn’t guess the culprit, but it definitely makes sense and I probably could’ve figured it out if I’d tried. The ending was very neat, but considering how dark this book gets in certain parts, it balances out alright.