SPOILER ALERT- I AM ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT THE END OF THE BOOK, READING IT WILL SPOIL THE MYSTERY FOR YOU.
The second half of this book turns from angry and resentful to twisted and convoluted. The most fascinating part for me was the way that the houses on the island where almost characters of their own- more so then the families that lived within them. The inhabitants are known by their family name and they are as transient as the money they represent.
By the end of the story I was not any closer to really understanding what was happening which is eclipsed by the phrase repeated throughout the book, "What you don't understand you can make mean anything"
The ideas that struck me most; Art that is so beautiful, or fascinating that people will walk into a fire in order to look at it; The thirteen year old Tibbi who betrays her own mother in a plot to kill all the people she loves most, and secure the financial security of everyone in her generation (as well as the next 100 years of island inhabitants). I can understand her being brainwashed by her grandmother. But that this same brainwashing led to her being convinced to burn her most beloved Granmy alive? really? who's the real psycho here? How do you convince a 13-year-old that she needs to starve her mother, fake her own death, and then set fire her own mentor/brainwasher?
I have to say though, the entire set up for the plot is extremely well thought out, original and fascinating. It's fairy-tale meets horror film. It reminded me of something that might have appeared on the Twilight Zone- a seemingly perfect island community, but scratch the surface and you find psychologically disturbing conspiracies hiding behind each flawless facade.
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