I finished the book a little over an hour ago. I'm not much of a lit-fic reader, so the writing felt somewhat mannered or precious to start with, with the neologism-like compound words and such. After awhile, I got into its flow and was easily swept back into the writing during each reading session.
I liked how the reader knows what happened--the deaths that caused the familial trauma that quickly made the household fall apart (though it can be argued it was on thin ice from the beginning) (and it didn't escape me that the house itself, aside from Esta's room, was falling apart, too, when Rahel came home)--but not how things actually played out, and were only given in hints, like the upside-down smile.
None of the characters were especially appealing, with the exception of Verutha and his family imo. Though as Olli mentions, even the nastiest of them are filled out enough that you can understand where they're coming from. Even while I hope I'd never make the choices that they do, or behave as cruelly, I could see how circumstances pushed them this way or that.
I wasn't expecting a happy ending, but whoof, that was rough. No coddling the readers about anybody's fate, not Ammu or Velutha, not the twins (especially Esta, who really gets put through the wringer). There isn't "there's always tomorrow," sometimes.
A very different book than The Namesake, for sure.
