Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

I am definitely in the minority on this one judging by the acclaim this book received, and I am baffled by that. I loved The Kite Runner and was engaged from page one. It was not only beautifully written but it told a gripping, believable story with well-drawn, interesting characters. I read 100 pages of A Thousand Splendid Suns, just to be sure to give it a fair shot. I thought any minute it would grab me, but it never did. The story is slow and boring. The characters have no depth, no redeeming qualities, they're not likeable, especially Mariam, the main character. I wanted to like her, to relate to her, but I couldn't. All the characters are one-dimensional. I'm not saying this to be funny or snide but I find it hard to believe the same person wrote both books. The Kite Runner was technically beautiful while A Thousand Splendid Suns is very basic Creative Writing 101. Truly, I think someone else wrote this book. To get all this critical acclaim I'm thinking something terribly exciting must happen on page 101 but since I could only manage 100 pages I'll never find out what it is.