My excitement for this book only went downhill. I watched the movie a couple of times and really liked it. Smilla was such a fun character and the story was surprising. So after a couple of decades I finally decided to read the book. Smilla was still fun, the background about Greenland and her life there was interesting. But after a while the inconsistent pacing became rather annoying. So my rating went from 4 stars after the first chapter , down to three somewhere in the second half to two at the end. While all the background info certainly added to the book, the author didn't know when to stop. It was just too much filler and not enough meat. Sometimes less is more.