The Latecomer doesn't have the same pull to keep reading as The Plot did. The self-absorption of the protagonist of that story at times made it difficult to continue reading, but had the mystery of the story itself to engage readers. Here, the readers are treated to characters that could care less about each other despite being immediate family members, and a perspective that changes from sentence to sentence. Occasionally told completely in third person, it will sometimes shift to a narrative that's presumably the youngest child Phoebe, despite the fact that she's recounting things that happened before she's born.