I'm a fast reader. In general, I happily read a hundred pages an hour and will usually finish a book in a sitting or two, usually in the same day. I was expecting Our Chemical Hearts to be a quick, easy read but after it took me two days to drag myself through the first hundred pages, I eventually had to give up. The characters were not gripping and it felt like there was a lot missing, as though it was merely jumping from scene to scene. By 1/3 into the book, I should have had a better idea of who these characters were but I didn't know or care for them. For all the talk of Grace not being a manic pixie dream girl ... she totally was one, and I have no idea what Henry saw in her. I've read a lot of reviews saying that the ending redeems the story but I just couldn't make it. It felt like a poor caricature of other bigger YA names when I was hoping for something original.