A book about dumb people pretending to be the elite.
It is difficult, at best, to relate to any of the characters in Brightness Falls since they are so completely unlikeable. The relationships in this book play out like a high society version of Jerry Springer, filled with a cast pf petty, ugly, mean people pretending to be something they are not. True communication does not exist between Russell and Corrine- they dance around their problems, and their personalities make the reader unsympathetic towards their situation. The climactic relationship train wreck between these two is pretty apparent from the very beginning of the novel. At the end of Brightness Falls nothing has changed for the remaining characters- there is absolutely no growth, just a sense that the titular characters Russell and Corrine will continue to stagnate in their dysfunctional, horribly codependent and enabling relationship.