Instruct: Classify the given review as either positive or negative.
Query: Pleasantly surprised... what a great read!

I say *pleasantly surprised* not as an insult to the author by any means, but because I wasn't sure I could bring myself to read this book given the intensity of the events that surround the story. But once I turned the first few pages, I was captivated by the author's writing style and read it to the very end in a few days. Yes, there were times I wished some of the events would turn out differently, and my heart ached for the boy who was less privileged but perhaps there wouldn't be much of a story if things happened the way it should in a perfect world. Very impressive first novel!