Reader Response to Death by Landscape

At first I really really didn't like this story. I was reading a library copy but if I had been able to write in the margins I would have repeatedly written where is this going, where is this going on basically every page up to where "Lois can remember everything, every detail; but it does her no good." I feel like this would have been a good opening. That sentence is the one that hooked me, after about six entire pages. 

I cared a little bit about Lois and Lucy's relationship up to that point, but it was almost like every other camp story that you hear, and I was not entirely invested. I thought the dynamic was interesting, but still done before - Lois, the careful one, Lucy, the energetic one, the one that lives on the edge. "The difference was that Lucy did not car about the things she didn't know, whereas Lucy did." After working to the end, though, I understand why we are supposed to care about the paintings. The paintings represent Lois's inner thoughts - they are where Lucy went, still living in the corners of her memories.

I thought the use of tense was an interesting choice. It was another thing that bothered me at first, because the very fact that I was thinking about the tense being used took me out of the story. I understand it now though; the use of the present in both the flashbacks and the current setting show how Lois's mindframe is still very much stuck in the past. 

Overall, I still wasn't a huge fan of this story. I feel like the point is that we don't know what happened to Lucy, but still as a curious reader I still wanted to know or have at least a hint.