I liked the idea of self-sacrifice. Part of thinks I'm clutching it like a drowning man does to a piece of timber. If she was sacrificing herself, then it was a good ending. Not a happy ending, but something good came of it. She won, in so far as the fates allowed her to.
What frustrates me is that I didn't pick this idea when I was listening to the story. Twice now. I'm reluctant to do so a third time. I think the problem for me is a lack of choice on her part. See, I do agree that she wasn't a victim - she made an initial choice to seek Kaj out and was aware of the dangers. But although it was a choice, it wasn't a sacrifice. To try and explain, using a no-doubt flawed metaphor: A soldier might chose to sign up to fight, well aware of the risks involved. That's the choice. Three months, later, he's faced with another choice when a grenade lands right in the middle of his squad - does he throw himself on the grenade. This is a separate choice, but it is also more than that, it is a sacrifice. The first choice (to sign up) was accepting a degree of risk, the second choice is accepting an inevitability of death.
In the story Grete continually (and knowingly in my opinion) chooses to enter into situations where the level of risk to herself increases. At what point does it become a sacrifice? Her fate is sealed is when she enters into the hospital room with Doc, she will be raped, then dismembered into parts. Grete has at no point chosen this as an inevitable outcome though, merely entered into situations where the likelyhood of it increased, until it was a certainty. The other, darker side too this is that whether she 'saves' Kaj or not, the same thing will happen to her. By the time she enters Kaj's hospital room, she has nothing left to sacrifice......
If the authors purpose of the story was about the sacrifices of Grete, I think it would be simple enough to rewrite the story so that a more 'active' choice was available for her to make in the last few segments - even if it's just Grete admitting to herself enroute to the hospital what she's getting into. That would probably make the story at least marginally more 'enjoyable' for sum. I'm not sure it'd be a better story though. What made this story sickeningly tragic for me was Grete's endless hope that maybe, just maybe Kaj was ok and that everything else might just work out. As I've (tried to, no doubt badly) said before, I don't think this is a story we're meant to like, but it doesn't mean it's not worth listening to.