Ive read a couple of Handlers Lemony Snicket books, and thought they were mildly amusing. Said coworker assured me that this book was much better and she was right!
I would highly recommend Basic Eight for anyone who was a fan of Heathers very similar themes, similar brand of dark humor but updated and more-than-timely.
The book is told through the diary of Flannery Culp, who is re-writing said diary, a year after the significant events, from the confines of an institution. (The reader knows shes guilty look at her name, after all!) The device makes for a very interesting unreliable narrator but the best part of the book isnt Flans tale of her highschool clique and how she wound up becoming infamous, but Handlers deftly pointed satire, as he shows the absurdity of how teachers, authority figures, and the media and self-help gurus (like Winnie Moprah) take problems and run in the completely wrong direction with them, babbling about cults and Satanism instead of actually addressing real problems. It is a funny book, but its also terribly sad in its accuracy.
Should be required highschool reading not only for students but for faculty!

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