The first 4/5 of this book was so slow, boring, and somehow alot of it was in no way important. I don't understand why we were told the story of Alice, but only teeny tiny bits from HER perspective. 
(I'm going to immediately contradict my last statement) Maybe the writer was trying to bring out how little say she had in her own life, that even her lifestory is told for her, and not by her. And yes, her story was important in a way to show

how needed it was for Barbara to escape the same destiny her mother had been given, and which was still going to continue with that poor 17-year old girl who doesn't yet understand better than Jean Paul jr. I wish they had thrown him to jail. Thank god he got sued for assault

Maybe I had such a bad time with this book because I don't enjoy reading about nonlikeable characters..?
The ending did save this book for me, but I'm not going to recommend this to others, and hope I don't stumble upon a similiar book for a long while.