nekokat reviewed The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler
Review of 'The Basic Eight' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Dark, funny, intense, clever (sometimes overly clever, which is to say, typical Handler), kind of riveting in a gruesome way. I like a book I can have theories about after finishing it. But I'm not sure it's entirely internally-consistent (which may also be sort of the point, or at least A point, of a sort), which makes it feel a little sloppy. And yet, bits of the writing are actually quite brilliant and the structure will nicely mess with your head, plus it evoked a certain element of nostalgia for my high school days, and the characters are kind of unforgettable even if not totally believable, but any immaturity of the writing can also be fridge-logicked into the frame story because it's allegedly written/narrated by a high school girl, so yeah, I don't know, it's good... but as with much of Handler's work, the fourth-wall-breaking tongue-in-cheek post-modernist carefully-constructed edifice sometimes …
Dark, funny, intense, clever (sometimes overly clever, which is to say, typical Handler), kind of riveting in a gruesome way. I like a book I can have theories about after finishing it. But I'm not sure it's entirely internally-consistent (which may also be sort of the point, or at least A point, of a sort), which makes it feel a little sloppy. And yet, bits of the writing are actually quite brilliant and the structure will nicely mess with your head, plus it evoked a certain element of nostalgia for my high school days, and the characters are kind of unforgettable even if not totally believable, but any immaturity of the writing can also be fridge-logicked into the frame story because it's allegedly written/narrated by a high school girl, so yeah, I don't know, it's good... but as with much of Handler's work, the fourth-wall-breaking tongue-in-cheek post-modernist carefully-constructed edifice sometimes seems to exist for its own sake and thus to act, not in service of, but almost in opposition to the actual story, or at the very least as a distraction. Which might also be the point. Anyhow, certainly impressive for a first novel, and a thoroughly enjoyable read.