While the actual writing in this story is beautiful, maybe the best of Mafi's work, the story is... lackluster. So many threads left dangling, so much unresolved. I'm not saying that I don't understand the almost hyper realistic nature of this story necessitates an extremely open ended story, but it just does not work for me. I don't understand what Noah is doing in this story at all. I don't understand why we never get a resolution about pretty much any of the family drama. The only story that has any sort of wrap up is the romance which is too bad. But again, the actual writing is stunningly beautiful. So much so I'm willing to put this up to a three because there were times when I got lost in the words and forgot that nothing was really happening in the story