The best parts of this book were the descriptions of the island; it felt very immersive and sensual, and I was excited to see where the story would go from there. Unfortunately that’s where my enjoyment ended. While I am fine with a slow-paced story, the narrative does need to be leading somewhere so that the detailed descriptions and musings feel like they are all adding up to something purposeful. The prose meandered far too much for my tastes, with several brief detours into supporting characters’ lives that were confounding, knowing now that they added nothing meaningful to the story or the mystery. I think there could have been 1/3 or more of the book cut and it would have been a much tighter read, though I still found the conclusion lackluster, unearned, and anticlimactic. 

Most of all, I found the characters Alison and Claire to be absolutely insufferable, with their constant fretting over not wanting to appear as privileged as they are and exhausting, self-absorbed self-analysis. I also despise how their dialogue (verbal or inner) was written; it seems that there is a cliché “teenager/young adult speak” that authors often use, especially for young women characters, that feels so inauthentic and one-note to me. I couldn’t believe either Alison or Claire as real people. 

Anyway, I can appreciate that this  book did not deliver the typical thriller vibe that I was expecting; I would be okay with this, if the storytelling had been better, the characters more believable, and the actual plot more engaging.