Personally, I loved it. It was stylistically and technically better than anything she's written previously and has a beautiful plot-- it just draws you inorexobly in and by the end I was so caught up with the characters I couldn't put it down. The concept of the microcosm of Tate, Webb, Narnie...
Hands down, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo...depressing as anything, difficult prose and its about a thousand pages. It is quite interesting mind, so I'm persevering.