I'm not sure what I expected out of this book. But I will say it started off well, but then petered out pretty quickly. When the story was about the two boys and the life of summer, I found the writing eloquent and often painfully beautiful. But when it descended into the macabre carnival, the language and they story became convuluted and incoherent. While I enjoyed parts, I can't say I really appreciated the story as a whole.