Absolutely! I hoped there would be a turning point in the domestic abuse scene when the brother returns after having run away, that it would provide a better metaphor for the state of the world, patriarchal tyranny ruining society or something, empathy being the better tool etc, but that's not what that thing turned out to be :)

The possessive nature of Bankole worked for me in injecting unresolved tension. The big wet blanket I felt was the set-up of the cartoon-ish inhumanity of the horde outside of the gates, that seems to play on middle class fear of homeless people, and how in this world religion and not social reform is the one thing that save us. Couple that with a sci-fi device like the "hyper-empathy" that has no real function in the drama, and turning the protagonist into a remorseless killer half way through, it really was an absolute mess of a book imo!

I agree on her being something of a Mary Sue, reading Sower I got the sense that she's an idealized version of the author herself. You could argue with the diary-style format that it's part of the main character's personality to exaggerate her insight and competence like a know-it-all teen might in her own journal. But there is nothing in the book to suggest that this is a conscious ploy that gets any sort of payoff.

I had countless issues with this book and only finished it because of how it keeps coming up in this forum.