I liked the characters. There was nothing overly polished or bland about them; they were ordinary people, believable. I also appreciated the fact that Holloway was able to weave in a bit of social commentary.
I have to say that I was jarred by pacing, which largely explains my three star rating. There were vague descriptions and the action moved fast, albeit with many surprising twists.
This is definitely a plot-driven story, and I read very few such works so I am, undoubetly biased. I tend to favor character-driven stories, and although Holloway's characters are believable, they are not very three-dimensional. I wanted more from them, to really get to the 'heart' which, in turn, would feed not only motivation but also work to add more nuance and poignancy to the surface-level sociological study of said characters. I wanted, I guess, to feel more empathy and understanding because the action was so fast-moving. The book should be longer for all that happens, to slow down so that I can really see each scene. I feel that I got only a glimpse of scenes and a lot of action, like a friend was telling me this story as she was drinking a triple latte and chain-smoking and speed-walking, and this friend had really only heard the story from another friend so she didn't know all the details.