I struggle with how to rate this book. It's not quite as low as three stars, but not quite as high as four. This novel read less like a novel and more like a pointed and poignant allegory for our times - thoroughly necessary, but not completely the kind of thing you read for fun. Because it is so, so deeply depressing. I didn't really ENJOY reading this, despite M.T. Anderson's engaging writing and the dark humor riding the undercurrents of the whole thing. And yet, it made me smile at moments I didn't expect, which I suppose is all we can really ask from a story.