I felt nothing special about this book when I started it, and for about halfway through it. It seemed an intriguing tale about somebody with a completely unique "illness" that no one understood, and while I recognized that the surrounding passages were describing the impact of someone with a strange disease, and how this affects those around the person, I didn't see it as more than a tale of that. Until I hit about the 2/3 mark.
At this point, the book changes rather dramatically, and without giving anything away, it's safe to say here that its focus is completely altered. Instead of talking about how illness affects the body, Ferris starts talking about how illness affects the spirit. The unexplainable nature of this particular illness is not as important, then, as it was in the beginning of the tale.
This makes the last 1/3 of the book the strongest part of the story. To some degree, however, I feel that Ferris wasn't entirely sure how to handle this change, and the supporting characters around our main character lose clarity and seem to be around merely to guide the timeline. This is unfortunate; I think Ferris could have pulled off something truly spectacular if he'd had a better idea of what to do at this juncture.
Of course, this doesn't mean the book is not worth a read. I consider it one of the best books I've read in the past 6 months.
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