My impatience got the best of me here: I just could not and would not go on reading about one child dying one after the other since this was and is what makes the majority of the plot. So I skipped ahead to the ending, which was predictable and unsatisfying. It's a shame, because I liked the premise, but if there is simply no reason to read the middle part of a book, that's an indication that something's off with it entirely.