UPDATE: Less preachy than I remember; the writing is lovely if you can get past the many repetitions (both verbatim and modified) of certain passages/motifs (water & death, silence & secrets, etc). Foreshadowing totally lacked subtlety — either the narrative flow was cut off abruptly and the information omitted, or it was ominous and obvious what would happen next. (It isn’t because I’d already read the book; I didn’t recall any of the plot during this rereading.)

The writing style was kind of annoying, preachy and patronizing. Didn't really like any of the characters very much, and the ending was really ambiguous. The premise was interesting, though, and there were some nice quotes about writing.