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The Basic Eight: A Novel
by Daniel Handler

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10997.The_Basic_Eight_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Basic Eight: A Novel" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1166394769m/10997.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10997.The_Basic_Eight_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Basic Eight: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7176.Daniel_Handler">Daniel Handler</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7530759?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars It was a good book, fun read, very Heather-like and a fabulous capstone/bookend (ha ha) for my "can't get enough gory, psychological, pretentious murder manifestos (manifesto, just in case you're taking this literally is far too strong a word for this book).
 So, Daniel Handler. Yep, he's rad. I like Lemmony Snickets and all that jazz. I think it's great we have have a new Edward Gory in the world to scare/tantalize little children and remind them that bad little boys and girls will be drown, starved, beheaded, etc. You can't really scare children enough, you know. 
 However, this book fell into a weird little age grouping and messed with it a bit. Unlike Special Topics and Secret History (Secret History being by FAR the best in this little trio), this wasn't really a novel about kids written for "adults." Instead I think it almost was "teen" read-ish, which, given Handler's Series of Unfortunate Events isn't a bad idea, BUT, it was just a little...well, not quite cunning enough to be Heathers and not classy enough to to Secret History. 
 I got stuck on the San Francisco part. I know nothing really, about Handler, but I think he's British, which is fabulous, but I was really distracted by the chosen setting of this book. It was SF but the only REAL parts of SF mentioned were the Golden Gate Bridge and I think Taylor or Turk or some street randomly is thrown out, but beyond that all the coffee shops are made up, the school is, I guess where SF state is, in reality...Lake Merced, but hills are referenced and I don't know: I don't know SF that well, but it was distracting to try to piece what I do know of it into this book and if I knew NOTHING about it at all I would have wanted to know more because I just like setting.
 In terms of character development I am a bit stuck here, too, because, without spoiling anything for you, the ending became sort of "easy" and in going back I'm not sure it's consistent with the rest of the text. It's sort of like he thought of an ending at the middle and doctored up the rest of the book accordingly.
 Granted, Special Topics employs many of these same tactics and I haven't looked back to see who wrote what when but I think Basic Eight was first. Let's just say Special Topics, while not perfect either, did a better job with this format. But both didn't hold a candle to The Secret History, but I had a great time reading them and, fueled by soy latte and rainy weather here in SF (oh, but am I really even here? Perhaps I could do some non-committal reference to the bus lines and "hills" and SAY I live here...) this book was a real page-turner.
 However, I am not a fan of the name Flannery. It got on my nerves as did the nick-name "Flan." I found that basically repulsive...and, the whole "unreliable narrator" thing...I'm pretty sure that only works when it's intentional. It seemed like Flannery was "unreliable" because she was inconsistent and probably the brain-child of old high school year book perusal and deep-seeded wish to have fucked shit up when you had the opportunity and complete lack of accountability and high school's really the last time to do this...so...in short, for a truly unreliable narrator I would suggest the good-old classic The Yellow Wall Paper and, if you're over eighteen probably save The Basic Eight for a pool-side read. But, it WAS fun, just what can only be called "the weak-link" to a murder mystery brew-haha.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/219514?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Jamie's review
rating:
recommended for: dawn

It was a good book, fun read, very Heather-like and a fabulous capstone/bookend (ha ha) for my "can't get enough gory, psychological, pretentious murder manifestos (manifesto, just in case you're taking this literally is far too strong a word for this book).
So, Daniel Handler. Yep, he's rad. I like Lemmony Snickets and all that jazz. I think it's great we have have a new Edward Gory in the world to scare/tantalize little children and remind them that bad little boys and girls will be drown, starved, beheaded, etc. You can't really scare children enough, you know.
However, this book fell into a weird little age grouping and messed with it a bit. Unlike Special Topics and Secret History (Secret History being by FAR the best in this little trio), this wasn't really a novel about kids written for "adults." Instead I think it almost was "teen" read-ish, which, given Handler's Series of Unfortunate Events isn't a bad idea, BUT, it was just a little...well,...more It was a good book, fun read, very Heather-like and a fabulous capstone/bookend (ha ha) for my "can't get enough gory, psychological, pretentious murder manifestos (manifesto, just in case you're taking this literally is far too strong a word for this book).
So, Daniel Handler. Yep, he's rad. I like Lemmony Snickets and all that jazz. I think it's great we have have a new Edward Gory in the world to scare/tantalize little children and remind them that bad little boys and girls will be drown, starved, beheaded, etc. You can't really scare children enough, you know.
However, this book fell into a weird little age grouping and messed with it a bit. Unlike Special Topics and Secret History (Secret History being by FAR the best in this little trio), this wasn't really a novel about kids written for "adults." Instead I think it almost was "teen" read-ish, which, given Handler's Series of Unfortunate Events isn't a bad idea, BUT, it was just a little...well, not quite cunning enough to be Heathers and not classy enough to to Secret History.
I got stuck on the San Francisco part. I know nothing really, about Handler, but I think he's British, which is fabulous, but I was really distracted by the chosen setting of this book. It was SF but the only REAL parts of SF mentioned were the Golden Gate Bridge and I think Taylor or Turk or some street randomly is thrown out, but beyond that all the coffee shops are made up, the school is, I guess where SF state is, in reality...Lake Merced, but hills are referenced and I don't know: I don't know SF that well, but it was distracting to try to piece what I do know of it into this book and if I knew NOTHING about it at all I would have wanted to know more because I just like setting.
In terms of character development I am a bit stuck here, too, because, without spoiling anything for you, the ending became sort of "easy" and in going back I'm not sure it's consistent with the rest of the text. It's sort of like he thought of an ending at the middle and doctored up the rest of the book accordingly.
Granted, Special Topics employs many of these same tactics and I haven't looked back to see who wrote what when but I think Basic Eight was first. Let's just say Special Topics, while not perfect either, did a better job with this format. But both didn't hold a candle to The Secret History, but I had a great time reading them and, fueled by soy latte and rainy weather here in SF (oh, but am I really even here? Perhaps I could do some non-committal reference to the bus lines and "hills" and SAY I live here...) this book was a real page-turner.
However, I am not a fan of the name Flannery. It got on my nerves as did the nick-name "Flan." I found that basically repulsive...and, the whole "unreliable narrator" thing...I'm pretty sure that only works when it's intentional. It seemed like Flannery was "unreliable" because she was inconsistent and probably the brain-child of old high school year book perusal and deep-seeded wish to have fucked shit up when you had the opportunity and complete lack of accountability and high school's really the last time to do this...so...in short, for a truly unreliable narrator I would suggest the good-old classic The Yellow Wall Paper and, if you're over eighteen probably save The Basic Eight for a pool-side read. But, it WAS fun, just what can only be called "the weak-link" to a murder mystery brew-haha....less

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