3.5Beautifully (poetically, even ;) written. I couldn't put it down and loved it right up until the end, when I settled in for a cozy wrap-up in what I expected to be the last few pages. Instead of pages I got paragraphs and then it was suddenly over! I can see the argument for ending where it did and letting the reader's imagination fill in the rest. But there were a few things I really expected to see in the text even if I were left to imagine the rest. Things like Swift actually opening that darn box. I wanted to find out what was inside it, what his reaction was to the contents, and if the contents would include a note or some other clue as to who had boxed it up (was it his mother??). There was specific mention of how the box reminded him of something or seemed familiar or special somehow, and I wanted to find out what that was. I'd have liked to actually see him write at least one poem, too, though that's one of the things I could have lived without if I'd gotten the rest.Also, I struggled with whether I felt like Swift and Max's relationship was sufficiently fleshed out or not. It sort of was, with all that was implied between the lines. But in the actual lines themselves it seemed kind of skimpy. We learn they both hoped the relationship would change at one point and it didn't. Why not? What happened (or didn't) that a possible deepening point was bypassed? And given that it was, I'm not sure I felt like the explanation for how it deepened now was quite enough.