loved atonement, but it left me unfulfilled

I almost gave up on this book after my sister in law Susan told me about her 50 pg. rule- if by 50 pages the book hasn't grabbed you, no matter how much buzz it's gotten, it's onto the next one. And by page 50, Atonement was still piddling around describing every little leaf on the tree without much substance. It was frustrating, but for some reason I just kept reading it knowing something had to happen. Well, finally by around page 70 something, it picked up and and never stopped. After some long awaited dialogue and a wonderful story to follow, I actually came to appreciate the extremely detailed imagery that was so annoying to me in the first 50 pages.

So in case you haven't heard anything about this story like I hadn't, it's about "An upper-middle-class girl in interwar England who makes a serious mistake that has life-changing effects for many." I was tearing through this book trying to see what kind of atonement would play out and kind of expecting some parallels to Christianity. That was not the case. I also had my own guesses of how Briony Tallis' atonement would come about, but I was completely off and my guesses were so far from what actually happened. The ending was a huge surprise. I have to say, I was pretty disappointed. I know a lot of people loved the ending because it was unexpected and realistic. I however, was left feeling like the author dug out this big whole in my heart and didn't fill it back up like I needed him to. I don't want to say too much more because I will give away the ending, but this is definitely a must read even though I was left completely unsatisfied at the end. I am extremely excited to see the movie now!