Amazing beginning, fantastic end. The middle is a little… saggy. But the character work is out of this world amazing.

While the themes and subject matter are serious, the writing is juvenile to the point of distraction. The narrating protagonist is supposedly in her 20s, but it reads as if she’s barely 12 or 13.

The first 25%-40% of this book is a solid 5-star rating in my eyes. The portions where the narrator is a child are lively and beautiful and addicting to read. So too are the initial flashbacks to her ancestors. Once we approach the halfway mark, however, the book is overwhelmed with characters from various timelines and it becomes impossible to keep them straight. The portion of the text that correlates to the description--the protagonist on an Arctic expedition gone awry--pales in comparison to the fascinating and intricate early chapters. 

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. On the one hand,
it was disturbing and propulsive enough that I couldn't
put it down, listening it to on my commute, while | got
ready in the morning, etc.
On the other hand, it feels like the ending was
lacklustre and, while the author acknowledges the
tropes at play in-narrative, the book still ultimately
feels formulaic. Ah well.