I had never heard of this book until I saw it at Barnes & Noble and bought it because I had a gift card and the book itself was really thick, so I was thinking a lot of bang for the buck.
I couldn't put it down the first 3/4 of the way through it, but I thought the ending sort of...fell apart. I don't know how to describe what I mean--I just think it was too quick and sort of fell flat after all this building up.
At first, I was disgusted that someone could paint as stereotypical a picture of a "mountain family" as the author did, but after I thought about it some more, I realize he's right, to an extent. My grandparents were like that...talked like that, acted like that...so I guess it's realistic. But I did get a little bit of an anti-feminist vibe. The only "strong" woman in the book, that annoying Camille girl, was described as a "bitch" and always behaved in an over-the-top way...all the other girls were either naive (like Charlotte) or just eye candy, it seemed. That's scary if that's how the world really is...