Idaho by Emily Ruskovich - Ending leaves unanswered questions

Idaho by Emily Ruskovich was not quite what I expected. I've always thought of Idaho with mostly flat agricultural lands, not hills and mountains. Emily Ruskovich, in an interview, mentioned that a lot of the experiences in the novel were her own as a child living on a mountain and bathing in trash cans. But there are other reasons why I found it wasn't what I expected. If you like a novel that ties up all the loose ends and answers questions to the major part of the story, you will be disappointed. (see spoiler alert below). I found it was like chasing rabbit holes.

The novel is told from differing points of view and is not a linear timeline - it skips around a lot with both time and characters and I found it took a little while to adjust to when the story was taking place. Bewildering was a word used by another blog review.

However, this novel has won many awards and is obviously well liked.

From the cover:
Ann and Wade have carved out a life for themselves from a rugged landscape in northern Idaho, where they are bound together by more than love. With her husband's memory fading, Ann attempts to piece together the truth of what happened to Wade's first wife, Jenny, and to their daughters.

Spoiler Alert:
There are several characters that are thrown in that you feel will be significant to the story, but aren't. The death of May and the reason Jenny killed her daughter is never explained. It does touch on a version from Ann that she thought May was singing a song that disturbed Jenny and she lashed out in anger, but that doesn't let the reader know Jenny's thoughts and why she did it. We also never find out what happened to June. I also thought it was odd that they changed the name of their first child from Lily to June within the first few months after she was born. They named her after a person who had been deceiving Wade's father and extorting money from him. This leads to the reader thinking June has been found when they receive a letter with "June" on the envelope.
Ms. Ruskovich's reasoning for not explaining May's death is that a shocking death is an unanswered question that the living victims are forced to chase forever. Knowing the reason doesn't alleviate anything. She also feels that a high percentage of "lost" children are never found and that it would be miraculous to find June and would not be truthful to the statistics.