This was a perfectly fine YA novel. The problem I have is that it was not marketed anywhere (that I could see) as being a YA novel, but instead as a "coming-of-age story". If this is not meant for teens, then it is a very wooden, chaste, juvenile story that I found dull once the first act was finished. It is incredibly derivative, to the point where I wished I was just rereading Patrick Süskind's Perfume at multiple points in the story. Just a big meh, she should have just stayed on the island.