4.15 stars, rounded to 4

Immediate response? The book moved be so much and in so many different ways throughout that I was worried how it could end and feel complete. And it didn’t. I’m not sure if maybe I took too much of a break, but initial thought is not a fan of the ending but loved everything else. (Was turned off for a while after the retreat scene when I looked up the author and found out they were a man as the story was just so compelling. I remember generally some issues with the beginning, perhaps worrying it was just an exaggeration of the familiar. Commune section was very very long, and I wonder if it could have been shortened a bit to stick more to the point of whether freedom is freeing or confining)

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Having now read some other reviews that put my feelings into much better words than I can (punchy writing, entrancing decay, gendered nihilism) one thing is definitely the hopelessness (consumerism, no lasting resistance, etc) though I had been hoping for an answer to all of the problems. 

I’m curious on how I’d feel about this on re-read