I tried to understand the appeal of this book and I never did, all the way up until the end. Connell consistently shit on Marianne and because of her skewed view of all relationships due to her abusive family dynamic she just dealt with it and thought it was normal. Granted, she did eventually stand up for herself in one relationship but that is it. The secret "I love you"'s followed by the weeks and months of no contact/getting into new relationships was so odd and I did not get it. The last half of the book was truly painful to read and the end made me feel even worse for Marianne. Overall, I feel that Marianne was treated very unfairly by all parties involved and she didn't even fully realize it. Connell had issues as well but, he was very well aware of how his actions affected Marianne. His mom was great tho.