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Treasure Island!!!

3.2 of 5 stars 3.20 · rating details · 742 ratings · 236 reviews

When a college graduate with a history of hapless jobs (ice cream scooper; gift wrapper; laziest ever part-time clerk at The Pet Library) reads Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island, she is dumbstruck by the timid design of her life. When had she ever dreamed a scheme? When had she ever done a foolish, overbold act? When had she ever, like Jim Hawkins, broke from...more

Paperback, 172 pages

Published December 7th 2011 by Europa Editions

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Feb 28, 2013 oriana rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2013

Here's a text conversation I had with my friend Megan:

M: Have you read Treasure Island!!! by Sarah Levine?
O: No! What is it?
M: Um, a book. You may like it.
O: Ha, okay.

[Megan brings me the book, which I dutifully add to my terrifyingly high, teetering to-read stack. A month passes. I read this and that and the other, and then I pick this up.]

O: Holy fuck, why didn't you tell me this book was endorsed by both Adam Levin and Aimee Bender??????
M: Um, because I don't know who they are.
O: AAAAAHHHH th...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Michelle rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

9 likes · like · see review

Jul 10, 2012 Telaina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: rumpus

This book is a hoot--its own unique little thing but with echoes of Sarah Bird and Lydia Millet shining through its pages. Our narrator starts as a fairly harmless narcissist and progresses to a dangerous sociopath, all because of her addiction to the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, "Treasure Island." One of the funniest moments of the book is when a fellow, well-intentioned character hints that Jim Hawkins may not be the heart of the book as our main character proposes but instead the book might...more

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Judith I totally agree with you! I just read this a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Have you read Gulliver's Travels recently? What a trip
(pun...more
Jul 12, 2012 07:25am

Teresa Although I really didn't like the book. I agree with your review. Especially the part "the power and 'danger' of literature...taking anythng we read a...more
Nov 16, 2012 10:12am

Telaina Thanks, Teresa! She is completely unlikable and she doesn't grow and change at all(except to get worse). But look at what she pays for it--she loses h...more
Nov 17, 2012 06:10am

Sep 24, 2012 Gemma collins rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was one of the few books I have read where as soon as I finished it I wanted to see whether other people had read it and what they thought of it. It definitely stirred a lot of feelings in me and it seems to have in other people, either it is a loathing or a real like.
I can't say either way really but that I do think this book has an extraordinarily unique voice and is certainly the most original contemporary fiction I have read in a while.
The protagonist is a little like Ignatius J Reilly...more This was one of the few books I have read where as soon as I finished it I wanted to see whether other people had read it and what they thought of it. It definitely stirred a lot of feelings in me and it seems to have in other people, either it is a loathing or a real like.
I can't say either way really but that I do think this book has an extraordinarily unique voice and is certainly the most original contemporary fiction I have read in a while.
The protagonist is a little like Ignatius J Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces - nasty, egotistical, obsessive, socio-pathic and completely detestable. Its odd to read a book where the protagonist is these things but to really enjoy reading it. For an author to create a character so detestable and yet keep you wanting to read is really clever. In some ways it was almost refreshing to have a character so appallingly blind to her own failings and not have the cliched resolution or self actualisation of so many stories. On the other hand you are waiting for this at the end - where is the justice and has she really learnt her lesson?
The pacing was brilliantly done, a quick read that escalates quickly into melodrama as worse and worse things happen so that I was laughing out loud, gasping and finally very disturbed.
Some of the descriptions were just perfect, particularly her moving back with her parents and the description of her parents daily life, the house being the same, finding little gadgets her mother has bought - having just moved back in with my parents this really got it for me
This is quite a disturbing read in some ways but also a very funny and fast paced one. It also interested me that the protagonist is female where often characters who are portrayed in the way she is are much more often male. There are definitely moments where I empathise with her and then am disturbed for doing so and feel better about my own, paltry short comings!
Really enjoyed this, enjoyed by being surprised as had no expectations of an author I had never heard of before.
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Feb 12, 2013 maven rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, humor, library-book, family, mental-health

I'm really torn over this book. On the one hand, I thought the writing was good and really evoked the main character and her emotional state and thought process throughout. But, on the other hand, the story, which felt like it had great potential, was not really enjoyable and was actually quite disturbing, especially with such an unpleasant main character.

Reading the summary on the book cover, I thought that the book's premise was not only interesting but had great potential. Unfortunately, the...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Tony rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

TREASURE ISLAND!!!. (2012). Sara Levine. ***.
This is a first novel from this aauthor, although she has written quite a few published short stories – many of which have garnered awards. You do have to keep the three exclamation marks in the title, or else you will end up with R. L. Stevenson’s book. As a matter of fact, Stevenson’s novel of the same name (without the exclamation marks) is one of the principal characters in the book. Our narrator and protagonist – whose name we never learn – is a...more TREASURE ISLAND!!!. (2012). Sara Levine. ***.
This is a first novel from this aauthor, although she has written quite a few published short stories – many of which have garnered awards. You do have to keep the three exclamation marks in the title, or else you will end up with R. L. Stevenson’s book. As a matter of fact, Stevenson’s novel of the same name (without the exclamation marks) is one of the principal characters in the book. Our narrator and protagonist – whose name we never learn – is a young woman who is trying to find her place in the world. She has graduated with a degree in English Literature, but has found only menial and off-beat jobs after receiving her degree. She has worked as an ice cream scooper and an associate at the Pet Library. She has been dating a young man named Lars, off and on, and has finally moved in with him. She has a driver’s license, but doesn’t drive. Her mother and father totally support whatever it is that she wants to do. Problem is that she doesn’t know what it is that she wants to do. She has an older sister who is a 3rd grade teacher at the local elementary school. The sister is less supportive, and expects her to pick up some kind of a life. Suddenly, she discovers “Treasure Island,” by Stevenson. She begins to study it and puts it through a process of deconstruction. She extracts all kinds of rules of life from the novel, and tries to model her life after the characters in the book. She has discovered that the novel teaches certain core values:
• BOLDNESS
• RESOLUTION
• INDEPENDENCE
• HORN-BLOWING
She now begins to lead her life according to those values. She even buys a parrot which she wants to train to say certain lines from the novel and who will ultimately travel on her shoulder. What she mainly accomplishes, however, is the alienation of everyone around her who cares in the least for her. This is a strange coming-of-age novel for a woman who should have laready come of age. The author tries to walk the fine line between ernestness and humor, and mostly achieves her goal. As a first novel, it’s not bad. I suspect that subsequent works will be better when she really decides what the focus of her story will be.
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Sep 05, 2012 Cindy Crawford rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The narrator in this story is hard to like. After reading Treasure Island, she decides to live her life by the code of the book: BOLDNESS RESOLUTION INDEPENDENCE HORN-BLOWING. In working to achieve her goal, she quits her job after stealing money from her boss at the Pet Library and buying a parrot (which she later kills), then breaks up with her overly patient boyfriend after living off his generosity because he doesn't work hard enough and has no ambition, moves back in with her parents, revea...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Elyse rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I got this book from the library while I was waiting for a book I ordered to come in. The title grabbed me (!!!). I thought it was funny to just outright name a book the same title as a classic, but add on all those exclamation points. It's something the main character herself would do, which, I guess, she did, because it's written as her journal. One of those suspended-belief journals in which every bit of a conversation is documented and so forth (I love those kinds). The writing was excellent...more

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Apr 03, 2012 David Hebblethwaite rated it 3 of 5 stars

Like A Novel Bookstore, Sara Levine’s debut novel (another Europa UK launch title) also revolves around the transforming power of literature, though here it’s one work in particular, and the result is perhaps not as positive. Levine’s (unnamed) narrator is a twenty-something graduate with a penchant for the easy (one might say lazy) option, until reading Treasure Island inspires her to be more like Jim Hawkins, and be bold and adventurous in her life. So she takes money from the Pet Library wher...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it 4 of 5 stars

Don’t take anything in this book at face value; it’s all a farce of the highest order.

Either that or our main character and heroine is the most self-centered, obnoxious, hard-to-get-along-with human being on the planet. With family and friends who are not far down the path themselves.

This has to be one of the oddest books I’ve ever read.

Yes, odder than 1Q84. At least that book was set in an alternate universe.

Not so this story, with a main character who works at a pet library, who reads Treasur...more

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Mar 17, 2012 Eileen rated it 2 of 5 stars

In theory, I should like this book. In reality, it reads like a series of real-life episodes of Alvin and the Chipmunks, with a horrifically unlikeable narrator blundering forward into scheme upon wacky scheme, each of which are apparently intended as farcical comedy, but which instead crumble into one huge cumulative sad mess.

I think the real keyword here is "unlikeable." The narrator--first-person, so there's no escape--is completely unlikeable. She has no redeeming qualities. Her actions are...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Tony rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

Like the anti-heroine of this grating satiric novel, I rediscovered the classic adventure Treasure Island as an adult, and found it hugely enjoyable. However, unlike the incredibly irritating, selfish, and possibly insane 25-year-old narrator, I did not convert it into a manifesto for personal growth. Working a strange, dead-end job in a pet rental store, and drifting in an amicable but mild relationship with her boyfriend, the unnamed narrator distills the classic adventure tale into four "Core...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Natalie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: rumpus-books

This book was a disappointment to me. I hated the protagonist who started out sort of quirky, then moved on to mildly annoying, finishing out dreadful, and unbelievable. The story kept getting more and more impossible and hard to believe--why did this narrator have any friends? Does anyone without some sort of mental illness actually behave this way? I admit that the premise was interesting, for a while, but the book felt more like an experiment that went on for about 100 pages too long.

At the b...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Doug rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read Stevenson’s Treasure Island to prepare for Treasure Island!!! (which is definitely recommended, although perhaps not strictly necessary) and it made me want to write more action-oriented stories. (My writing is very low on captures, escapes, fisticuffs, harrowing escapades at sea, and such.) Treasure Island!!!’s narrator’s response is an order of magnitude more drastic: she wants her life to be more action-oriented. She adopts the “core values” she derives from Treasure Island as justific...more

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Dec 15, 2011 Natasha Zaretsky rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this novel and have added three exclamation points to the end of this sentence as a paean to the author!!! Wholly originally, mordantly funny, and wonderfully deranged, it tells the story of a twenty-five year old woman who--frustrated by her own ostensible aimlessness--haps upon Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and decides that the boy adventure story holds the key to her own self-improvement. Determined to turn a new page and live by the book's core values of boldness, independ...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Patrick Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: best-of-2012

The funniest book I've read this year, and a criminally underrated novel. The narrator, a nameless young woman, finds inspiration in the classic novel Treasure Island. She decides to use the book as a blueprint, a template for how to be a different sort of person. Drawing from Jim Hawkins' four core principles -- boldness, resolution, independence, and horn-blowing -- she sets out to remake herself. But what she succeeds in doing is unmaking her life. She essentially steals money from her employ...more The funniest book I've read this year, and a criminally underrated novel. The narrator, a nameless young woman, finds inspiration in the classic novel Treasure Island. She decides to use the book as a blueprint, a template for how to be a different sort of person. Drawing from Jim Hawkins' four core principles -- boldness, resolution, independence, and horn-blowing -- she sets out to remake herself. But what she succeeds in doing is unmaking her life. She essentially steals money from her employer to buy a parrot named Little Richard. She loses her job at the "pet library" (a business where patrons can borrow an animal for 48 hours), breaks up with her live-in boyfriend, and is forced to move in with her parents and her sister. There, she proceeds to destroy everyone's lives in horrific (and hilarious!) fashion.

As I read on, it became clear that the protagonist was possibly (probably?) insane. And even worse, she was probably tragically misreading Treasure Island (She barely remembers the character of Long John Silver). As she digs herself further and further into lunacy, the more it becomes obvious how terribly delusional she is, how woefully ill-conceived her sense of self is. And the crazier she gets, the funnier and more entertaining this novel becomes.

This was a fascinating book to read immediately after Gone Girl, as both books feature female narrators who have an idea of themselves that's radically different from the one the reader forms. Of course, in Treasure Island!!!, it's played for laughs (though there is some death in the book (view spoiler)), while in Gone Girl...well, fewer laughs, I guess. I was never sure whether the woman in Treasure Island!!! was a psychopath in the vein of Amy in Gone Girl. She has a bottomless capacity to trample other people's feelings, to be sure, but she seems to have some remorse about it, from time to time. More likely, I think, she's some sort of autistic. She can't read social cues and seems surprised when people react with horror to horrifying things.

Whatever her mental health status, she was a wonderful mind to inhabit for the few days it took me to read this book. Highly recommended. (less)

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Sep 19, 2012 Kathy rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 25, 2011 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, novel

The second book I read this year with an exclamation mark in the title (and this one has three of them, which is three times as exciting as Swamplandia!), also one of the better books I've read this year--the best not to make any yearend best books lists (possibly because of its December publication date).

Treasure Island!!! is told in the first person by a narrator who is hilarious, quirky and as self-centered as she is completely unselfaware. She is a recent college graduate stuck in a series o...more

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May 08, 2012 Hollowspine rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a strange book, and it evoked a strange response for me. First of all, I'm not sure whether or not I liked the book. The first chapters did not impress me and in fact I did not think that my review would be more than two stars. However, as I read the book grew on me.

I began the story, of course, finding our narrator to be a self-absorbed, vain idiot. And moreover, I didn't find her likeable as a protagonist, I wasn't rooting for her. I was hoping that something really terrible would happ...more This is a strange book, and it evoked a strange response for me. First of all, I'm not sure whether or not I liked the book. The first chapters did not impress me and in fact I did not think that my review would be more than two stars. However, as I read the book grew on me.

I began the story, of course, finding our narrator to be a self-absorbed, vain idiot. And moreover, I didn't find her likeable as a protagonist, I wasn't rooting for her. I was hoping that something really terrible would happen to her...not so that she would realize how wonderful her life was and the people who she was taking for granted, but only for my own gratification. It seems I have something in common with her after all.

As that would indicate soon I was reading with a smile, wondering what mishap could possibly happen next.

I think that Levine had an interesting idea and she wrote a good and very rich story out of it. Taking a classic work and using it as the trigger for this dysfunctional family drama created this hilarious and black book. And using this book obsession, in the end, made me sympathize with this utterly crazy narrator.

Our unnamed narrator wants to embody these themes from Treasure Island, to be Bold, Resolute, Independent and a horn-blower. Whatever she tries always turns out terribly though. Partly because she is a vain, self-absorbed idiot. But the ways in which she fails are so interesting and funny. And the results of her actions create this environment where the other bizarre characters of this novel flourish.

I found that many other reviewers couldn't enjoy (or even read it seems) the book because of it's first person POV with such an unlikable narrator. At first I was of that opinion also, but as I read I stopped being bothered by the tinted view of the world through our narrator and realized that there is so much more going on. The story is rich with detail and all of these really funny situations, if only the reader pull out a little to see the wider picture.

From the beginning I realized that our narrator was more John Silver than Jim. Like Silver she is constantly changing her colors to best fit her present needs. She is obsessed with something, and will do anything to achieve success. She is prone to violent outbursts, yet she has a charisma that draws people to her (even when she has hurt or betrayed them).

Poor Little Richard, I thought, was like Mr. Arrow. Although everyone on the crew liked him, he didn't fit into the role Silver needed so one night he mysteriously disappears. Unlike Treasure Island though Levine leaves nothing to suspect.

Besides having our narrator quote and refer back to Treasure Island and having these parallels between the two works she creates this world where a young boy inspires a 20-something woman, but no one sees that as a good thing at all. Everyone encouraged Jim when he left home, his mother, at 10 years old for a sea adventure. Our narrator has tried independence, but failed and returns around 20 to her mother's house. Truly a book for our current world. Like John Silver we come back from Skeleton Island (college) with not much to show for it, and our colleges are glad just how cheaply they rid themselves of us.

In the end I was sympathetic to the narrator. I couldn't help it, hasn't everyone had the experience where a book (or etc.) has really touched them, yet when they try to spread that inspiration, that touching moment with someone else no one understands or cares. What had such an impact to them barely registers to anyone else. Going on about it, trying to make the person understand only brings further annoyance for both parties. Levine uses this alienating experience to really bring out the worst (and the best) of all her characters and for that I give this book four well earned stars.

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Feb 14, 2013 A. V. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Aside from the profoundly racist speech pattern of the Ms. Wang character, this book is absolutely hilarious.

The awful, delightfully delusional narrator enraptured me at once with unwavering gusto. The writing gives a pithy clarity throughout the story and illustrates most profoundly who exactly our hero is. The voice is rife with such maddening humor I imagine lesser talents would have been incapable of lifting the tale above the trap of tiresome idiocy making the ridiculousness unbearable. Lev...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Mmars rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's hard to rate a book highly when the main character is perhaps the most annoying I have ever encountered. But I found it to be quite good. Really more like 3.5 stars.

I story's parameters were rather unique and the characters were interesting exaggerated stereotypes.

I felt the "intervention" device hard to believe (but not entirely implausible) and the ending, in which the main character remains unaffected by her deeds hard to believe. But I guess it's possible that there are people out there...more

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Mar 22, 2013 Sean rated it 2 of 5 stars

Treasure Island!!! [exclamation author's] is a quirky Sundance film in book form. It is quirk for the sake of quirkiness. I read it at the recommendation of an internet book club called Literary Disco, hosted by a former TGIF sitcom star. I'll leave you to ponder the wisdom of taking a recommendation from said source.

The "plot" concerns a 25 year old woman who reads "Treasure Island," and decides that she wants a life of adventure, fulfilling the "core values" espoused by the book. Does she take...more

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Sep 29, 2012 Daniel rated it 3 of 5 stars

I don't know what I think about this book. I was curious how things would end up, and of course what would happen before it got to the end, but there was something off about the main character, and not in the way I expected. I was hoping she would be an awful person, period. But she was mentally unstable in at least one way, and that made her less enjoyable. I like my coldhearted characters to be coldhearted and not seriously unstable.

I have to give it three stars because it is the first book I...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Kwoomac rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, animal-as-main-character, books-about-books, capital-d-dysfunctional, contemporary-lit, reviewed, snarky

Ok, I was definitely along for the ride as this wacky, 20-something girl decides to base her life choices on the tenets she's extrapolated from her obsessive readings of Treasure Island. These beliefs are 1)boldness, 2) resolution, 3)independence, and 4)horn-blowing. Horn-blowing is my favorite! I was right there with her until the unfortunate incident with Little Richard. She lost me as a cheerleader after this. I was done with her long before her family decided to have an intervention.

Great i...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Meghan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club

Wow. It has been awhile since I've read a story with such a deplorable main character. The unnamed woman searching for herself makes me feel so much better about my life and my own personal relationships. The basic story is that this woman reads Treasure Island and then starts to live her life by what she thinks are the four principles (core values) of the book: BOLDNESS, RESOLUTION, INDEPENDENCE, and HORN-BLOWING. She does this in the worst ways possible and manages to hurt multiple people alon...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Treasure Island!!! is the story of an unnamed 25 year-old protagonist who is stuck in a rut. She's a young woman looking for some adventure in her life. Thus far, this college graduate, philosophy major, has held several mindless and low paying jobs from "gift-wrap associate" in a department store to part-time clerk at the "pet library" (she calls herself, "Circulation Clerk"), a job which is short-lived and after her unauthorized purchase of a parrot named Richard for the Pet Library. A bird wh...more Treasure Island!!! is the story of an unnamed 25 year-old protagonist who is stuck in a rut. She's a young woman looking for some adventure in her life. Thus far, this college graduate, philosophy major, has held several mindless and low paying jobs from "gift-wrap associate" in a department store to part-time clerk at the "pet library" (she calls herself, "Circulation Clerk"), a job which is short-lived and after her unauthorized purchase of a parrot named Richard for the Pet Library. A bird when after being let go, she is stuck with, and a bird she quickly loses interest in. Her boyfriend, Lars isn't particularly exciting either, but without a job she gives up her apartment to move in with him -- this too is short-lived. She is determined to change her life for the better, and maybe his as well.

One day her sister, Adrianna, a 3rd grade teacher, leaves the library book, Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson at her apartment. The last time our protagonist read that book was when she was 9 years-old. She reads the book again, after all she doesn't have anything more interesting to do, and suddenly, it hits her -- she too needs to become adventuresome, like the book's hero, Jim Hawkins. She's determined to begin living her life by the core values of the original book Treasure Island: Boldness, Resolution, Independence and Horn-Blowing.

Unfortunately, her attempts to change her life by being more bold and adventurous, go from bad to worst, because one thing the protagonist lacks is introspection and self-awareness. What follows is a series of interactions and incidents, some are quite amusing, others terribly embarrassing for those involved, but yet she never sees the effects that her actions and boldness are having on others.

While I generally enjoy stories with quirky characters, especially ones who just can't seem to get out of their own way, this lady quickly began to get on my nerves. Yes, some of the things that happened when the heroine (if you could call her that) tried to change her life, were quite funny, a little of her nonsense went a long way. Although this debut novel was under 200 pages, I grew somewhat tired of her antics and the chaos she caused when she tried to get involved in everyone's business. I'm glad I read this book, but am guessing that the reviews might be mixed on this one.

3.5/5 stars (less)

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Apr 26, 2013 Shan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: listened-to-audiobook, hilarity

This was one of those books that made me feel keenly the difference between "It's good" (it is) and "I liked it" (I didn't). It's clever and funny and well-written and I laughed out loud a number of times. The unapologetically unlovable heroine is an impressive creation. But I need at least a sliver of heart and/or soul to really enjoy a book, and I just didn't find it here.

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Dec 28, 2012 Xach rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loved this book.

This is a short book that will start long conversations. Rather than seeking to answer questions for the reader, Sara Levine has chosen to offer readers a dynamic, robust main character who is flawed in a great many ways to serve as an amazing unreliable narrator through a journey of discovery. More than just self-discovery, "Treasure Island!!!" brings up questions of family, friends, relationships, and how a single unmoored person can reveal so much in so many people.

Because the...more Loved this book.

This is a short book that will start long conversations. Rather than seeking to answer questions for the reader, Sara Levine has chosen to offer readers a dynamic, robust main character who is flawed in a great many ways to serve as an amazing unreliable narrator through a journey of discovery. More than just self-discovery, "Treasure Island!!!" brings up questions of family, friends, relationships, and how a single unmoored person can reveal so much in so many people.

Because the novel has a very small cast of characters, the reader gets to spend a fair amount of time witnessing how each one interacts with the narrator, and how she interacts with them through her skewed narrative. The information that the narrator chooses to share is as important as the information withheld from the reader, but revealed through descriptions and the way other characters interact with her.

I definitely laughed more at the beginning than I did at the end of the book, but the humor is present the whole way through. It punctuates the narrative with releases of laughter that are at the same time insightful windows into the narrator, who has a very dry sense of humor but also a skewed perception of reality. As the narrative progressed, I began to see the humorous moments not as only joking, but also as indicators of the problems the narrator was facing and how humor was used as a defense against self-realization. By the end of the novel, I still saw the jokes and found them darkly amusing, but I'd become so attached to the main character that I no longer could separate the funny quips in the narrative from the emotional sympathy I felt for her.

Where I think the novel makes its strongest move is in its arguable lack of resolution or redemption. This is what I meant when I stated at the beginning that rather than offer answers, the novel asks questions. The main character does, in some way, have several moments of redemption. However, none are truly seen through to the end. In the same way, the other players in the story are also given moments to redeem themselves, and only see their own redemption through halfway. By denying the reader a clear-cut path to redemption for any of the characters, the narrative asks the reader to engage in the question of "Why?" Why deny the characters that act of absolution? What have they done to earn it? What have they yet to learn? These are the questions that will nag most readers who try to figure out the ending in great depth. Additionally, by not really resolving the ending, the narrative makes the reader wonder what happens next. Where do the characters go from here?

It's an ending full of possibilities and full of potential, all of which is left wide open for reader interpretation.

Structurally, I also greatly enjoyed the way the novel made use of foreshadow, and how each move in the story seemed necessary to get the characters into the next positions, but didn't seem forced. No character suffered from a Deus ex Machina, they were all moving organically, each according to his or her own flaws and shortcomings, as well as strengths.

In short, I recommend this book. If you can shed yourself of expectations and allow the novel to surprise you in how you define crazy, what you mean by "protagonist," and what you expect from a resolution, you can be delighted by the wonderfully insane story of "Treasure Island!!!"(less)

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Jun 03, 2012 Henderhouse rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 09, 2012 Meghan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-fiction

A gift from kfan. THANK YOU.

This is a case where skimming some GoodReads reviews before I really got rolling on this actually helped my overall opinion of this book. I had this heads-up situation where people were feeling like the narrator was blithely unlikable, and crazy, and mean, and since those are all things that are likely to put me off a book, I went in trying to work against my own prejudice. Because if you really want to talk about it, I don't actually think a protagonist has to be li...more A gift from kfan. THANK YOU.

This is a case where skimming some GoodReads reviews before I really got rolling on this actually helped my overall opinion of this book. I had this heads-up situation where people were feeling like the narrator was blithely unlikable, and crazy, and mean, and since those are all things that are likely to put me off a book, I went in trying to work against my own prejudice. Because if you really want to talk about it, I don't actually think a protagonist has to be likable, at all. I think what it is is (1) that sometimes we get lazy in discussing a book and say "unlikable" when we mean "I just don't know what the eff this character's deal was, and I don't like the book enough to try" (2) that sometimes authors work hard to write characters who are odd or interesting and in doing so just make them seem like preciously drawn robots instead of complex human people.

SO. Guess what, the narrator is totally unlikable! But genuinely, and deliberately, and enough so that in a backwards way she ends up kind of likable. For instance: she works at a Pet Library, which is a horrifying and absurd business where people borrow pets. Then return them. Horrifying. But worse than that, she hates it, and she's selfish about it and cavalier towards the animals. So suddenly as the reader you have to kind of not worry about how nuts the Pet Library's concept is, because you're busy being annoyed at the narrator's behavior. And then the narrator starts talking about how awful a bird is, and you're still kind of annoyed, but you remember then how long birds live, and how constantly caring for something is actually, kind of, secretly annoying, even if it is another living thing. It's still kind of annoying. And that's a prickly painful truth, and the book just showed it to you, because of the unlikable narrator.

Once I re-framed this book as a book about a careless person approaching the world like a foreign object, it really sprung open for me. It's an interesting approach to tapping at the windows; if your bitch narrator makes a crack about how she doesn't actually want to know what people are feeling, it doesn't come off as a condescending remark about the banality of everyday conversation. It just kinda makes you go, "Ugh, you're the worst. Even though I agree." I think I'm repeating myself now? Okay. How about the part where I tell you this occasionally felt like a through-the-looking-glass version of THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE? Yeah, I don't know. But it did.

Also the writing is great, super-funny and smart and sharp. Sara Levine has a VOICE and a POINT OF VIEW and they are great and exciting and I want to read other things that she writes, absolutely. (less)

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