A very strange book. After reading it, I still don't know how to categorize it. Is it a thriller, a melodrama, a commentary on the unique social circumstances of a small university in the middle of nowhere? It's all those things and none of those things. A large part of the problem is that none of the characters come to life. They all seem to do just what is required by the plot, nothing more, nothing less, and there's no predictability to them. Just when you feel like you've maybe got a handle on things, one of them goes and does something totally unexpected and out of character.