One of those glorious, wordy, coming-of-age books that is certainly in the same league as The Secret History and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as one of those ephemeral, seminal books that you will never forget.
This tome weighs in at approximately 700 pages; a veritable Lord of the Rings without the eccentric Oxford languages don at the helm. Each page, however, is an intellectual leap of fancy; the only apt term to describe this book would be "scatter-brained." It merrily vacuums up factoid after factoid, deposits it in the reader's arms, and leaves absolutely nothing to chance.
It is a novel of glowing erudition; tracing the sequence of events that lead Blue van Meer and her father, Gareth, to one of the nastiest book endings ever possible. On the way, deaths abound, not least that of one of Blue's muses; each death is surrounded by mysterious goings-on that could only be explained by the counterculture that is prevalent through the book.
As Blue follows her itinerant wanderer father round the known universe, gradually picking up the pieces of her life anew every time she moves to a new school, she inches, slowly, out of her shell; however, this time, she strays a little too far from her bubble.
Funny all the way, and with bits of needless, yet utterly intriguing, factoids constantly in your face, this book is one amazing tome that you will compulsively read, reread and reread; sometimes for the action, sometimes for the mystery, but on a whiplash day, the verbal diarrhea and acrobatics is enough for a fine distraction.
Another of those rare books I have to give an 11/10.
