4.5 stars

Quality writing full of depth and detail. Author doesn't shy away from difficult subjects or morally dubious characters, and addresses the issue of nature vs nurture in a way that damn near broke my heart.
Idris is adorable, if too innocent and trusting, a character that is easy to like and root for. He shines off the page like sunshine, making even the morally dubious Victor glow. And when Idris' shine is dimmed so is the book. From the moment Victor breaks his heart (and that's not really a spoiler, that knowledge is curled up waiting from the very first moment they meet because there really is no other way out for them) the book is a shadow of its former self, still beautifully written but without that joy that had carried it along, so you are living that bleakness with the characters.

The happy ending came fast on the heels of this gloom and I felt it needed one more chapter to balance that out, as it stands the ending wasn't quite enough to wipe away my lingering sadness from the events after their split. I would have liked to have seen some of the events told to us in the final chapter and that would have given me the distance from the sadness that I craved.

This is the reason I give it 4.5* I toyed with rounding down to 4 but the quality of the writing and the gloriousness that is Idris wouldn't let me. ( )