It doesn't matter how artful or thought-provoking this book could be at times; I was dissatisfied for most of it because I did not like and could not comprehend the characters. Regan commits crimes, does drugs, cheats on her boyfriend, enables other men to cheat on their partners, hates her parents, medicates through sex, and is simultaneously self-serving and self-sabotaging. Aldo is a socially dense math genius and all he thinks about is math and bees and how to time-travel. And they never change. Based on my limited exposure to quintessential lit fic, there seems to be something about the genre that lends itself to these types of unrelatable, off-putting characters.They are incredibly raw and human, only in the worst of ways.

I liked the exploration of complex concepts and masterful writing—there were some truly stunning passages—but they couldn't salvage the experience. I feel like I have more of an appreciation of the author's intellect than of the book itself.