A bit tedious due to the overuse of parentheticals citing some academic work Blue, the main character thought relevant to whatever it was she had just said. The parentheticals didn't do much, with the exception of maybe shedding some insight into the main character's line of thinking.

It's a mystery, but one where the reader never really finds out what happens. Though some people might enjoy the open-endedness, it was a little too much for me. I wanted to know, at the very least, if it was a murder mystery. But, no. I was left with a weird "Final Exam" section that further opened up the possibilities and annoyed me.

But, I will admit the story was interesting, particularly the first two-thirds or so. The bluebloods, despite their unbelievable adult-like behavior, kept me reading. And, the part of the mystery that was actually somewhat revealed was pretty fascinating, if far-fetched. ( )

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but I can definitely see why it rubs some people the wrong way. It's written in such a omg-look-how-dang-smart-and-a-good-writer-i-am-give-me-a-pony-way that sometimes comes off as too clever by 9/10. There are occasional passages where the reader just has to step back and say "dang, she's smart, and a good writer," while looking up local stables. Basically, it comes down to which side of the fence you come down on. ( )

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but I can definitely see why it rubs some people the wrong way. It's written in such a omg-look-how-dang-smart-and-a-good-writer-i-am-give-me-a-pony-way that sometimes comes off as too clever by 9/10. There are occasional passages where the reader just has to step back and say "dang, she's smart, and a good writer," while looking up local stables. Basically, it comes down to which side of the fence you come down on. ( )

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but I can definitely see why it rubs some people the wrong way. It's written in such a omg-look-how-dang-smart-and-a-good-writer-i-am-give-me-a-pony-way that sometimes comes off as too clever by 9/10. There are occasional passages where the reader just has to step back and say "dang, she's smart, and a good writer," while looking up local stables. Basically, it comes down to which side of the fence you come down on. ( )

I will not give a rating for this book because it wouldn't be fair. This book was found, by me, in the Mystery section of my library. Yes, there is a mystery, but there are also mysteries in Lovecraft and you don't put him there.* Secondly, the anime-style illustrations aren't in keeping with the writing tone of the book and just made me angry every time I saw them. And finally, I don't read "coming of age stories" particularly one where

SPOILER!
the person on whom the main character has based their entire life and worldview turns out to be Not What They Seem!**
end SPOILER!

BUT the writing in this book is incredible. Whatever handwritten version of the first page the author has (or a printout with hand written notes) deserves to be in the Smithsonian or one of the glass cases in the Library of Congress. I'm not being sarcastic here. I sank into this book like a bubble bath and I was angry every time something took me out of it. (hence the irrational fury over the illustrations) So- objectively this book gets 5 stars. But it made me upset and angry and I'm never looking at it or thinking about it again.

*My new library has gotten around this problem by making the category "Detectives" instead of mystery, which I think is brilliant.
**But can it be a spoiler when it's the plot of every major coming of age story written since 1990?