This may be the best book I've read all year, which isn't to say it's perfect. In fact, there are about a million reasons to hate it that most of my fellow reviewers have already touched upon: the gorgeous young It Girl-looking author for one, or the denseness of the writing (some have called it overwritten), the pretentiousness of it all. And yet, for sheer impact, I don't think I could come up with a single thing to top it. This book really gets in your head and doesn't leave it the same again. I almost returned it a chapter or two in because the book is about the size of your standard dictionary and it was madness to begin it going into final exams. I couldn't bring myself to postpone reading the rest though, because it was just too good to set aside. Ultimately, I polished off the last quarter or so of the book in a single night too gripped by the suspense to put it down until I found out how things resolved themselves.

There is something just too compelling about the main character. Blue is a near-genius who may excel in nearly everything but her social development remains severely stunted due to being dragged cross-country by her hilariously pretentious and snarky professor father. Newly arrived at the last in a string of schools to finish out her senior year, the hapless Blue gets sucked into a coterie of intense over-achievers who orbit around an even more mysterious drama teacher. While her association with them gives Blue the chance to finally act like a teenager for the first time in her life, there are disturbing undercover goings-on that are unraveled that make her (and the reader) question everyone's agendas and motives, including her father's, who seems somehow connected to it all.

Although the book looks back on the events surrounding a dramatic incident revealed to us early on, more and more half-truths and deceptions unfold as the book progresses that lead to even bigger bombshells. Just as you don't want to like the book and yet you do, Blue is exasperating and heartbreaking at the same time, the book is darkly funny and absolutely terrifying. I know a lot is always said about Infinite Jest---which seemed to me too clever by half---but this at least has a payoff that's worth the effort.