Mandel's writing is excellent and unpretentious, as usual. It's a great story with thriller elements and characters who find themselves falling into desperate situations. There are lots of keen observations about people's relationships, hopes, disappointments, foibles, and sense of morality. Despite the seriousness of the topics touched on (housing crisis, habitat encroachment, crime, etc.), there's a low-key sense of humor, at least in the first half of the book, like when Gavin is troubled by the abbreviation/acronym on his sister's business card, feeling that there's a letter missing (another example: when he visits his mother and then considers climbing out the bathroom window to avoid further conversation). I also really enjoyed the focus on music.