What a ride!
The insanity these characters go through is amazing! It's funny and sweet and horrible and bizarre all at the same time! They are well and truely backed into a corner. There is no coming out of this unscathed. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE is compromised in some way. The vicar and his wife SEE the hilarity of their impossible situation. They have a quiet laugh about it...but it's all real...and it's NOT funny. It's actually a touching scene, showing who they really are, beneath what they've become.
I have to admit, I totally understand where our maths tutor is coming from, but she isn't very likable. Of course she isn't! She's locked in a BASEMENT and chained to a pipe!! I can see her trying to stay alive. She knows what's involved, she knows what they're feeling, she also knows she has to do everything in her power to stay alive...wouldn't you?
I don't know how to root for everyone...the vicar, his wife, their son, the maths teacher, the somehow lovable mass murderer with the photographic memory...the only one you don't feel sympathy for is the journalist...she seems so opportunistic somehow. Willing to sell out her "friend" for a chance at an interview with a man who killed his wife. A genius, no less.
Its a lot, but it's worth it.