3,5 ☆
I'm going to write this review in English, though I read it in Dutch. It's easier to express my thoughts about this book in the English language.
Firstly, there were discussed some really interesting things in this book. Maren (Or Lila, whatever you want to call her), is a real overthinker: she thinks thoroughly about things that most people never even care to think about. I think these philosophy bits will stay with me the most; I thought they were really interesting: ''Kon je jezelf ooit zien zoals een ander je zag? Zelfs voor de spiegel lukte dat niet. Vanuit de binnenkant van jezelf keek je naar je buitenkant. Niemand kon vanuit jouw binnenkant kijken'' (8). And this one: ''Is er verschil tussen onzichtbaar zijn en niet bestaan? Een onzichtbare is tenminste nog iets. Niet-bestaanden hebben geen eigenschappen.'' I also really liked the bit where Maren and Ole talked about the effect of music on crystallization/the forming of crystals. I thought it was very interesting to read and think about, and it really made me think about some stuff differently (in a good way).
Secondly, I want to say something about the main character: Maren(/Lila). I thought she was very interesting. Sometimes I really understood how she felt, which made me connect to her in some ways. Most of the time, however, I didn't. At some point, I really didn't like her, but then 50 pages later I did, again. That actually happened several times throughout the book. I think that does show that Iris Boter is quite a good writer.
I really did sympathize with Maren and sometimes I just wanted to help her so badly. Sadly, I couldn't.
Either way, overall I really liked the book and I was really taken in into Maren's world.
The main reason why I gave this book 3,5 stars, is because I really didn't like the ending. It was really abrupt and to me the book feels unfinished. I would have liked it better if the ending hadn't been so open. An epilogue could have made it better, for instance. Something else she could have done, that I would have liked, is that she could have written the ending in Ole's perspective. Then we might have known a bit more about what happened to Maren afterwards.