I don't love this reader's delivery, but it was okay for this character.
The story was too surreal while not surreal enough. Here's the thing: when you grow up, there's a house at the end of the street where you don't go. You always stop at the house before that. You don't play in that yard, and when your ball rolls in there, you feel weird. Sometimes you see the people who live there, but you never talk to them and they never wave to you. The thrill of the weirdness, though, gives you a nice little burst of adrenaline.
You do know the people at the house next door. Your parents do. You don't mind them, but you don't care one way or the other about them. Sometimes your parents have dinner or play cards over there, and you hang out at the house. Things are a little strange, but just familiar enough.
That was how I felt about the story's surrealism.
Also, the plot appeared too late. In some of the recent Laurell K. Hamilton novels, she gets 250 pages in and then realizes, "oh, shit, I forgot the non-sex-related story part!" I feel the same thing happened with the man in the green hat. This story had a TON of potential, a really great title, and a concept -- chasing the sun because you're in love with it, a sort of transferrence effect -- but I just think there wasn't enough groundwork laid in the first 20 minutes to justify the last five. It was like, "stuff happens, stuff happens, she bumps into this guy, the chalk lady makes a mistake, she chases the sun, she turns into a star, here's what happened to everyone else, the end". I just couldn't get into the story, as much as I wanted to.
I have to give it a meh. I just didn't like it enough to give it more than that, despite all its positives.