So far, of the three Gilead novels I have read, Lila is my least favorite. I was really expecting Lila to be set up like Gilead and Home - same time frame, different characters.  But Lila is best described as an origin story. Unfortunately, although Lila had a hard life and is deserving of all the love and empathy in the world, her pov made this book hard to read.  For starters, due to her nomadic and almost-feral upbringing, Lila lacks the vocabulary and emotional intelligence to describe her feelings and thoughts. Because of this, we get several hundred pages of her not communicating to those in her life, or to the reader. In addition, the loneliness and sadness in the story are just relentless. Overall, the writing just lacked the beautiful prose that was found in the prior two novels. I am curious what I will find when I read the fourth novel in the quartet, Jack.