This book was, ...whew, well to say it was good or enjoyable doesn't quite fit, though it is stunningly well written in a technical sense. The reading certainly isn't "enjoyable", the whole thing extracts a toll on you even as you eagerly, apprehensively turn the next page, it is a profoundly searing, moving book, and as if by magic, the trauma on the pages wounds you as well. Lionel Shriver's prose is inspired and lambent and her skill for unsettling and unnerving, for taking a simple scene you're familiar with and turning it into a nightmare, is absolute. By all means read this book, but do not read it lightly, it will affect you, it will make you consider the worst case scenarios of parenting and relationships in general.