This book falls somewhere between 2.5 and 3 stars for me. I thought it was fairly well written, although the Esther chapters seemed completely random and unnecessary. I'm just not usually very excited about books with agendas, and this novel had several. And a few of the characters were a bit extreme in their "archetypes" (read: stereotypes). For example - a conservative, born again Christian who just so happens to work for a Walmart-esque corporation that wants to come in and ruin every local business owner and whose wife has resorted to poisoning and blow torching innocent bunnies because they keep getting into her garden. Really??? I did like Jesse, though.