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Miss Timmins' School for Girls: A Novel
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Miss Timmins' School for Girls: A Novel
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Miss Timmins' School for Girls: A Novel
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Miss Timmins' School for Girls: A Novel

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this ebook

“An irresistible novel that hurls forward at breathtaking speed toward an unpredictable climax.”
—Thrity Umrigar, bestselling author of The Space Between Us

“Beautifully written, atmospheric…contains entire worlds. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Gary Shteyngart, bestselling author of Super Sad True Love Story and Absurdistan

Miss Timmins’ School for Girls is the truly dazzling debut of a major novelist, Nayana Currimbhoy. Set in India during the monsoon of 1974, it tells the story of a conventional young girl who leaves her cloistered small town home to teach at a remote boarding school run by British Missionaries. Part coming-of-age novel, part suspenseful murder mystery, Miss Timmins’ School for Girls is a brilliant evocation of a colorful time and place—India during the love, drug, and rock ’n’ roll era—complete with the sights, sounds, and music of the period seamlessly woven into the page-turning tale.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateJun 21, 2011
ISBN9780062092243
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Miss Timmins' School for Girls: A Novel

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Reviews for Miss Timmins' School for Girls

Rating: 3.2500000333333334 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A fairly quick read about a girls' school in Panchgani, India. Newcomer Charulata Apte becomes embroiled in a murder when her passionate relationship with fellow teacher Moira Prince ends in a tragic death. Secret are uncovered, the young students at the school get involved, and Charu's life is soon spiralling out of control. The characters, setting, atmosphere and writing are all brilliant, although the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll theme of the 1970s does start to drag slightly towards the end, I felt. The school, though, presumably based on the author's own experience, is is brought vividly to life, with the students and teachers trapped by the monsoons, dependant on each other for company but also divided by rank and relationship.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I cannot praise this book highly enough.
    I randomly selected it from the shelf at the library. I'll admit it, the cover grabbed my attention, I loved the blurb, and from the moment I read the first page, I was hooked.
    Absolutely refreshing to read something not set in America or England. Clearly I need to vary my reading a lot more, as I hadn't realised I'd fallen into such patterns.
    The main character has faults, she isn't perfect, both externally and internally. She copes with a disfigurement, which is a defining feature of her. But it doesn't rule her life. Her life does not follow the pathway her family, her caste, her colleagues expect, and I think that is the greatest surprise of all.
    If you don't like reading about drug use, or lesbianism, then this book isn't for you.
    If you love mystery, complex characters, and chapters written from different viewpoints, and beautiful prose, then this book is for you.
    Every character, minor or otherwise, comes to life between these pages. I wanted to finish it, but I didn't want it to end.
    I've never been to boarding school, but it had shades of Enid Blyton tangled through some of the scenes. And as an avid childhood fan of the Famous Five, and all the other series written by Enid Blyton, I loved it even more for that aspect.
    I loved it. That is all.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Miss Timmins’ School for Girls is a rather bland title for a book, with a cover photo of girls walking in the rain that seems as if it could have been taken anywhere. There’s something quite beautiful about the colours, though, and the suggestively ethnic design of the border provides our first hint of how deceptive and artificial that portrayal of ordinariness really is.

    Right from the very first page we’re teased with the central mystery, and introduced in such a way that we’re immediately suspicious of the various narrators. With a teacher’s body discovered beneath a rain-swept cliff, another teacher already fleeing a scandal back home, a group of teachers too liberated to set a proper example, a story of taboo love, and a few overly curious students, the stage is set for a literary journey across the world and back in time.

    For me, this was a bit of a difficult read, only because the culture (and its associated struggles) is so very foreign. There is a strong contrast between cultures, religions, and classes that is revisited throughout the story. At times, I found my fascination with the characters and their surroundings actually pulled me out of the story, forcing me to go back and reread certain passages to regain the thread of the plot. The fact that the plot seemed a bit disjointed at times likely didn’t help, but that’s not a complaint, just an observation.

    I must say, the language here is lush and beautiful, almost lyrical at times. The narrative voices are very strong, authoritative, and entertaining, and yet never entirely trustworthy. Some voices had more impact than others, but it’s a style of writing that suits the mystery element very well (even if it detracts, a bit, from the cultural elements). While the main characters were very well developed, the supporting cast ran the gamut from generic to fascinating, with some existing only to advance the plot. I would have liked to see either a few less characters, or a little more time spent developing them, but that’s a minor point.

    In the end, it’s the strength of Charu that carries the novel, and her development – both socially and emotionally – that kept me reading. Her story alone could have made for an interesting novel, serving as part travelogue and part romantic drama. At the same time, the mystery could very well stand alone as a much shorter novel, and might even benefit from the added focus. Somehow, though, it’s the mingling of the story lines and the genres that appealed to me most, almost (and perhaps intentionally) mirroring the mingling of cultures and classes.

    All in all, an interesting read, and one that’s very well told.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Felt obligated to finish this for book club. Otherwise I would have stopped reading it after 50 pages.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    started out okay then plummented
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book is about a lot o things - maybe too many things. It's a kind of romance, a mystery, a comment on Indian society and a coming of age novel. Maybe it should have concentrated on the latter because both the romance and the mystery were unsatisfactory to my reading eyes.Charulata Apte is a Brahman young woman whose family has been disgraced by a scandal involving her father when she was a young girl. The scandal has resulted in their living in reduced circumstances, as well as causing Charulata to develop a disfiguring blotch on her face, probably caused by nervous eczema. At the age of 21 she takes a job at a boarding school in a remote mountain village. The school, a holdover from the British Raj, is run by a white Presbyterian missionary. At the school Charulata finds herself drawn to the "bad girl" teacher who introduces her to sex, drugs and rock & roll. Her life seems to be opening up, but then a body is found at the bottom of a cliff and Charulata's very orderly world starts spinning out of control.I picked this book up for the mystery, but found that the mystery was the least interesting part of the book. The author would have been better served exploring Charulata's growth as a person and exploring how upper-class Indians seem to hang on to the last vestiges of British rule, than to waste the reader's time with a most unsatisfactory mystery.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked this book more than I expected to based on the reviews. Set in a boarding school in India in the 1970s, this is an atmospheric novel with a strong sense of setting. Charu is a young teacher venturing from home for the first time. She has lived a sheltered life and in many ways this novel centers on her journey to figure out who she is. Charu begins an illicit relationship with another teacher, and this combined with a murder mystery lend suspense to the novel. The "whodunit" aspect was fascinating and made it difficult to put the book down. Where the novel was lacking, however, was in its character development. While interesting, Charu was, at times, irritating in her inconsistency of thought and feeling. It was difficult to really "know" her as a character and this created a distance between character and reader. Nonetheless, the writing was quite good, the storyline compelling, and the setting richly described (this is the novel's greatest strength). This is definitely worth the read.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I absolutely hate the way I felt about this book. The problem is, I really wanted to love it. Based on the description, and even based on the first 100 pages, I truly believed I would love it. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there and I ended up really disliking it. This makes me sad.First of all, I really liked Charu’s character in the beginning. I felt that I understood her, in a way, because I have been there myself. When I first moved to Florida I didn’t know anyone and I started at a job where, although I was a transfer from another office in another state, I was looked at as the “new kid” who probably didn’t know anything. I definitely had a hard time fitting in at first and had to work to build friendships and relationships with my coworkers. Happily, that’s much better now, almost two years later, but my point is that I know what it’s like to be the new person in a situation and have to build relationships from scratch. It’s hard. And it was even harder for Charu because she had virtually no self-confidence because of a birthmark on her face. So when her and Prince began their friendship, I really rooted for her and I enjoyed reading about their relationship. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the two women became more than friends, I liked that Currimbhoy took a somewhat taboo topic (based on the time period and the culture the book was set in) and folded it into the story so seamlessly.Unfortunately, that is where my positive feelings end with this novel. After the death I mentioned above, everything completely fell apart for me and I began loathing the fact that I had to pick up this book and finish it. There is a huge section in the book that is narrated by one of the girls at the school, which truly didn’t work for me. It surprised me and took me out of the story and frankly, I didn’t like this character at all. So I wasn’t happy to hear from her for such a huge part of the book.I thought the novel was going to have more of a mystery feel, but instead it was a character study with tiny mystery aspects twisted in, and it just didn’t work for me. I do enjoy character studies when they are done well, but in this case I couldn’t care enough about Charu and the girls at the school to continue being immersed in their lives. I really wanted to find out what happened with the murder, but it felt like it just took forever to get there. Plus, the book was much too long, in my opinion (500 pages), for what it was. I felt that it dragged on and on with no end in sight, and frankly I found myself extremely bored.I don’t mean to sound harsh. The book did have a lot of promise, and there were things about it I did like. But overall, Miss Timmins’ School for Girls was just not my cup of tea.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This book was similar in a way to a book I just read, In Search of the Rose Notes. Both were coming of age type stories set against the back drop of a mystery. In this case the book takes place in India in the 1970's. As another reviewer noted the book tends to drag on. The characters engaged in a lot of behavior I could not relate to and I was disengaged from them, not really caring what their fate was. I also did not care for the ambiguous ending. After sticking this book out for five hundred pages and I felt cheated to be left hanging by the last two pages. A lot of people seem to love this book so this may be another one where I am in the minority. I received this book as part of book club girl's online reading group. She has a discussion with the author on her blog spot radio show that you can listen to on her website right now. Although this book was not for me, I enjoyed listening to the discussion with the author Nayana Currimbhoy very much.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed this story very much. It made lengthy airport delays and flights fly by.Set in India, it's the story of a young Indian woman who gets a position teaching at an English school. It is a coming of age story in the generation of sex, drugs and rock and roll. It doesn't seem like it would work set in India, yet that is part of what makes it such an interesting story. In a society that is so traditional and protective of it's young women, Charu's story stands out.Another point that made this book such a good read for me is that it's a mystery. It's not a typical "whodunit," though. There are layers of mystery that slowly come unraveled.One mystery is never really solved. Although I'm curious, this works for me. It's like real life where we don't know everything and adds another layer to make the story real. The epilogue feels tacked on to address this, but for me it was unnecessary. Because of the passage of time, Charu had become a different person, one who no longer seemed to fit the story and the revelation seemed no more certain that anything had at the time it happened.Over all, however, the book was excellent and one I'm happy to have in my library.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this on my Nook with no idea what it was about. I didn't even read a description or look at the author's name- the title itself had an air of mystery that made me want to read it. As a debut author, I believe we can definitely expect more from her. The book is the story of a small all-girls school in Panchgani. Charu is a newcomer, forever marked by a blot on her face, who gets caught up in a story that has already been unraveling when she arrives. She has been cast out her entire life because of the blot on her face, and so she fits right in with the group of outcasts already settled in Timmins. When a murder occurs, Charu and her group are determined to not only clear their own names, but to solve the murder once and for all- for everyone's sanity.The story itself took a while to get started. I actually forgot it was a mystery because the murder occurs about halfway through the story. The writing is lyrical, describing the land I know nothing about, but I still felt I could picture it due to her descriptions. I felt badly for Charu from the very beginning- her culture treated her so harshly that I almost felt she had no chance at all. As the murder unfolds and the story is told from multiple views, it gets increasingly complex. The writing seems to go on for a bit too long, and I actually got a little antsy for the story to move quicker- and this is rare for me since I've read 100 Years of Solitude three times and have never felt it dragged on- however I was glad I stuck it out for the 10-20 pages it went on too long. In the end, the reader is left feeling confused and a little upset at how none of the characters seemed to get what they really wanted. I realize now that this is how the characters themselves felt, so it makes perfect sense. I'm excited to hear more from this author. I think this being a debut novel she had thrown in multiple story lines in multiple genres, covering multiple political issues. I could distinctly pick out at least three I would have liked to be their own story (a "disfigured" woman in Indian culture, a woman teacher in an all-girls school, and the murder itself). I think (and hope!) her next novel will be as complex and intriguing, with maybe just a bit more focus.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    When young Charulata Apte is sent to Miss Timmins’ School for Girls as a new teacher, she is sheltered, shy and reclusive. Believing herself to be disfigured by a birthmark on her face, Charu spends a lot of her time fading into the background and observing the world from behind her dark curtain of hair. Navigating her way among the other teachers and students, Charu is suddenly swept up into a curious relationship with one of the more unconventional and wayward teachers, Ms. Moira Prince, and this relationship begins to change the reserved and quiet Charu in ways that no one can imagine. But when Moira is murdered and rumors fly through the school, Charu finds herself at the center of a controversy regarding Ms. Prince. Added to this mysterious murder is Charu’s new and unpredictable relationship with a man named Merch and the wayward drifters he spends time with, and Charu’s increasingly difficult relationship with her parents, whose hidden secrets have finally burst forth in destructive and powerful ways. In this novel of India during the 1970s, one year of boarding school mayhem and an unexpected murder is examined through the myopic lens of those who reside inside Miss Timmins’ School for Girls and the surrounding area.I have to admit that I had a really hard time with this book for a lot of reasons. Normally I love books set in and around India, and the time period the book took place in was also a boon for me. But for some reason, the amalgamation of all these elements coupled with the plot and characters just didn’t work for me. It all came across as sort of a jumble, and I was glad to have finally turned the last page and called it quits. Stylistically, I felt this book had a lot in common with The God of Small Things, which is another read that although beloved by others, just didn’t work for me.One of the main problems I had with the book was the sheer overabundance of characters. Each was given a brief description and then sort of disappeared from view for a while until they would make their second and third appearance and I would have forgotten every description I had read earlier. They were all just so amorphous and fuzzy, these many characters, and for some reason even the characters that weren’t given short shrift lacked subtle definition. The one character I felt that I got to know well was the protagonist, Charu, and what I knew of her, I liked. I thought her moral and mental indecision was very realistic and I grew invested in finding out what would eventually happen to her. Unfortunately, the other characters just didn’t stick with me and I was unable to form any type of connection with them, which made me feel curiously detached from the story.I also had a problem with the plot, or really, the lack of it. I can only assume this book was meant to be a character study of Charu, because the murder of Ms. Prince was literally the only thing that happened here, and it was examined from so many angles and garnished with so many rumors that I quickly became exhausted with it. How many times can you go around and around about the same plot point without it becoming tedious? I grew to resent the fact that this crime was so all-inclusive and important to the story, and felt that the author was beating the reader over the head with the significance, repercussions and nuances of the murder. At a certain point, I didn’t care anymore, and the more it was harped on, the more I felt like I just wanted to close the book and be done with it. One significant plot point does not a book make, and though the writing was elegant and lush, I found myself becoming ever more frustrated with the way the book kept circling the same events over and over again. This is not to say that the murder was the only thing that happened in the book, but that it was the focal point for too long in in too many ways. I would have liked to have learned more about Charu and her family, or possibly have seen more information about the townsfolk that populated the area.There were some aspects of the book that I did like even though most of it didn’t work for me. I liked the atmosphere of 1970s India during the monsoons and felt that the book drew a lot of tension and ambiance from the setting, which was pitch perfect. I also really adored the protagonist, Charu, and felt her fears and worries were very credible and understandable. The prose was tightly and expertly crafted, and I found certain sections of the book to be written with a very solid and artistic style. If not for the other problems I had with the plot and characters, this probably would have made for a tremendous reading experience for me. I can imagine that I’m probably going to be in the minority with my opinions on this book, which is fine with me, but I feel like the book could have been so much more with just a little bit of careful editing and trimming of fat.Though I wasn’t overly fond of this book, it did have its moments and I can imagine that there are many readers out there who might like it. In spite of the difficulties I had with it, there are some scenes that stick in my mind and that I know will be hard to forget. I think this book will end up being very polarizing, with two camps forming between love and hate, and while I wouldn’t exactly say I hated it, I can say that it wasn’t at all what I had been expecting. A dark and mysterious read that although uneven was still haunting.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Let me just say that last year I may have overdosed a bit on books set in India. Some were good, some were bad, but overall they seemed to have the same melancholy, morose feel to them and I promised myself I'd lay off of them for a while.Then I signed up for this tour. My first thought was, great, here we go again, but then I picked up the book and started reading and realized this was unlike any story set in India I'd read thus far.The story of Charu was interesting enough - but add into the mix a murder mystery and the book takes on a new purpose and life of its own just when the story seems to start slowing down. While I could have done without some aspects of the book, the murder mystery was quite well done and moved at a solid pace.Nayana Currimbhoy did a beautiful job of crafting a story that had memorable characters, a good sense of mystery and thrill, and just enough emotion that it had my heart aching more than a few times for the emotions the characters were experiencing.So, in short, I'm not sorry I picked up this story set in India, and if anything, I think its given me hope and the desire to seek out more stories like it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read a NetGalley copy of this and I was fully prepared to like it, but it really dragged on. I just really didn't connect with any of the characters. It took forever to get to the murder and it was a real struggle for me to keep going.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is another book I have mixed feelings about. I enjoyed it, but there were a few things that got in the way of it being wonderful. My biggest issue is with the writer's obsession with Charu's facial blot. I get it. I didn't need to be pounded over the head with it. Another complaint I have is that the book could have used a little more editing. I would have given it four stars if it had been 'tightened up.' I loved the atmosphere, and the descriptions of the school and surrounding areas were a pleasure to read. I didn't mind that the point of view hopped around a bit, though I certainly would have enjoyed hearing more from Merch. He is a fascinating character. It's a first novel and I would read more from this author, especially if she gets a more thorough editor.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is a murder mystery wrapped up in a book about a girls' boarding school in the mountains of India. Miss Timmins' School is heavy on colonialist ideology, and becomes the scene of fear and intrigue when a teacher is murdered. Told through the eyes of a teacher, Charu, and a student, Nandita, the reader follows their efforts to discover what really happened to teacher Moira Prince. Charu is a new teacher, living away from home for the first time and experiencing her first love. At Miss Timmins she relishes the freedom of independence and makes friends with a group of local hippies. She is particularly tied to Moira Prince, well-known bad girl at the school, and Charu's first love. Their romantic relationship is always charged by Charu's fear that she will be found out. The book is a bit slow in the first section, particularly in the development of Charu and Moira's love affair. Once the murder investigation began the book quickly gained speed. This is a beautifully-written book, a suspenseful mystery with the style and depth of literary fiction. The book is perhaps a bit longer than it needs to be, but it was a very engaging read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Miss Timmins' School for Girls is intense! It's a complicated romance ensnared with a murder (suicide?) scandal. Churu a new teacher at Miss Timmins' School. Outwardly, she tries to fit in with the other missionaries. She wears her clothes properly and has civilized tea. After dark Charu finds drugs and friendship with a troubled, misfit teacher named Moira Prince. When Moira is murdered the school community is a whirlwind of chaos. After some time, witnesses put Charu with Moira right before her death. Did she do it? When a shocking love affair is revealed the story becomes more complicated. When a birth mother is revealed the story takes another twist. It keeps twisting until the very end.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I love debut novels. This one had all the elements. Set in India in the 1970's. It has drug sex and rock in roll mixed with a murder mystery. I think it was interesting to see the Indian culture in the 70's. I thought the book was a little long and would drag on at points.Over all I thought the book was good and will recommend it to friends who like South Asian fiction.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Miss Timmins School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy.I loved this book. It's hard to believe it's a debut novel. My worst criticism was that I found it a little long and that it occasionally dragged a bit. On the other hand, I loved it so much, part of me wanted it to last even longer!The story takes place in a boarding school in India, where upper class girls mix with British missionaries and rock and roll, drugs, and other influences of the time-it is the mid 1970's and the times, well, they truly are a-changing.Our heroine is Charu, a new teacher at Miss Timmins. It's her first job and she is barely older-or more experienced than the girls she is teaching.. She forms a friendship with another teacher with a very different personality and lifestyle. Moira prince has joined the 70s with a vengeance and it is through her that Charu meets the world of hot music and illicit drugs.And where, Charu is left to wonder, does the Shakespeare she's been hired to teach, fit into this new world?This book is a beautiful well-written novel. So good a novel, in fact, that I forgot it is a murder mystery. So I was appropriately surprised when in the middle of monsoon season, at night (of course) a teacher is murdered and the carefully ordered life of Miss Timmins oh-so-proper life is thrown into the chaos of the world, a chaos already happening in the rest of the world. The school's careful surface is shattereed and the local town is delighted to jump upon it with gossip and speculation.It is now that Charu begins both her real adult life and true education. Perhaps too predictably, she becomes a suspectIt's 1974. The murdered teacher was pushed from the highland known as The Tablelands and there were many potential suspects, each holding their own secrets and motives to murder the victim.I enjoyed this book as a murder mystery but also as so much more. It was fascinating to read about the India of the 70s with the sudden clash of Indian culture, British imperialism, and the new wave of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll (the 2 last subjects already of prime interest to me). So as a lover of murder mysteries and as a lover of political-sociological studies (especially when presented in compelling fictional form) this book had me hooked.The characters are well-drawn. Not only are the major characters fascinating but all of the minor ones as well had distinct voices and stories and caught my interest. Currimbhoy is a wonderful writer who takes the murder mystery beyond its genre (as good mysteries do) to examine issues of class and social mores.And it doesn't hurt that the story takes place in one of my favorite venues-a boarding school. Boarding schools seems to create a world onto their own, full of the intensity of adolescent friendships and angsts and teacher eccentricities. I loved books set in boarding schools when I was a child and adolescent and now, on the other side of life, I love reading them as a teacher.This is a wonderful book that I recommend not only to lovers of mysteries but to all lovers of fiction and those interested in how world upheavals play out on the smallest scales.I hope everyone reads this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's 1974. Charu has just been hired to teach at Miss Timmins' School for Girls. She is a first-time teacher, nearly as young and impressionable as her students.Moira Prince also teaches at Miss Timmins'. She is unorthodox, a bit older, worldly, and troubled. Miss Prince, nicknamed Pin, has a mysterious connection with the school's director, and seems to have cast a spell on Charu, who becomes deeply involved with her and the group of bohemians who are her friends.One night, Pin seems especially disturbed. she is found dead at the foot of a cliff, under a rock formation known as The Needle. The police determine that she was pushed, leaving many questions about her death.That night, there were many others up on The Tablelands, near The Needle, including Charu. Each has their own secrets, and each is a possible murderer.I loved this book! Currimbhoy is very talented, especially when it comes to speaking in a character's voice, and for description.This book drew me in immediately. The back stories of the characters, and their distinct voices made them seem almost real. The setting was magical...a Hogwarts for girls in one of th4 most fascinating, exotic locations with fantastic rock formations and a cave/den of illegal activity, all set in an Indian hill station.This was Currimbhoy's first novel. I hope and expect to see much more of her. I definitely think she is a rising literary star.If I noticed any flaw, it was that the plot's resolution was a bit weak...signalled too strongly and too early. Everything else, though, more than made up for that. It's possible I felt that way about the ending because I finished the book after a night without any sleep. Wih faults or without, I loved this book, and as this was the author's first novel, the author's writing will be even stronger in the future.