This might be the first book that has legitimately confused me to tears and not because the content was too difficult to understand, but because Carl is a god awful storyteller. Never in my life has my first thought when closing a book been that I need alcohol. 

He does get 2 stars because the story he wanted to tell is honestly interesting and if anyone else had written this book it most definitely would have been a good book.

Now I'm going to hunt down Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, because this book just made me scream about how Arrival did it better so many times.