The book started out fine, but then it dragged along for quite some time without adding anything essential. We follow colorless spinster Marion, who lives with her brother John and leads the most unremarkable life I've ever read about. Okay, her creepy brother keeps some 'Visitors' in the cellar, but that's about him, isn't it? Marion just drags through her days watching TV, eating and sleeping. She's always dreaming about a better, more interesting life but never doing anything about it. And that's her big problem: she never acts, only barely reacts and everything happening out of order is a nuisance and strain. Only when her brother has to stay in hospital for a longer period of time, she is forced to take some action, whether she likes to or not. About three quarters of the book deal with the daily life of Marion, including flashbacks to her past, which is as uneventful as it can get. Even the small episodes where her brother's secret surfaces to her consciousness or threatens to be uncovered do not alter the slow and steady flow of the story. While this serves perfectly to describe Marion's character, at the same time it turns this story into a very uninspiring read.
There was not a single likeable character in this book, maybe apart from Marion's aunt who is only mentioned as a background actor but as it turns out had great influence on her. During the middle of the book I was repeatedly tempted to give up out of boredom. Even the ending where John's horrible secret is finally laid open in all its horror was too predictable to surprise. Only Marion's transformation came unexpected and finally breathed some life into the story. This was an OK read but not a pleasant one.
(Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book, all opinions are my own)