I'll admit, I went into this book completely blind and had no idea what to expect. This is a layered novel with several stories, but I felt that enough time was spent in the present (the story I was most invested in) to keep me reading on. The short chapters helped with the momentum, too. As the book neared the middle, I couldn't wait to see what would happen and raced to the end. I alternately felt sad and angry over what the characters went through, and also learned about a piece of history that was new to me.