4.5* on re-read - this time along with the audiobook, which was fantastic, and the more audiobooks of SGJ I read, the better I understand and appreciate his narrative structures. Oral storytelling is so powerful, and for me, it comes through in the audiobooks of this and My Heart Is A Chainsaw. I appreciated the circular and non-linear, multi-pov narrative structure much more than on first read.
Hardy's conclusion is still a wonderful piece of storytelling, and for such a brutal and violent story overall, this is a delicate and gentle closing element of the book.