I dragged my way through this book, honestly hating every word and every sentence. McEwan has fantastic technical skill, but Briony made me want to scream every time I turned the page, and by the time I got to the end of the book I was tired and just wanted to throw my copy in a river. Generally I don't like "war novels" (so to speak), so this was never going to get 5 stars from me, but after reading other "war novels" like Birdsong- a book I dragged myself through, sometimes skimming full passages only to completely fall in love with it at the end and going back and rereading- I just found myself underwhelmed with this one.