A review by revellee
The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler

5.0

This was a surprisingly great read. When I saw that is about high school seniors, I almost put it down. I've become a little jaded to the YA genre, romances too cheesy and dramatic for me. This book, however, does it all so well. The way it is written is so smart (too smart for me apparently, since I didn't realize right away that the study questions at the end of chapters are part of Flan's rewrite). I was hesitant to read a bunch of teenage female characters written by an adult man, but Handler pulls it off quite well. I would love to write more about this, but I don't want to give ANY spoilers. The experience of reading this book without foreknowledge of the characters or plot is so worth it.