Daniel Handler's The Basic Eight

Probably best known under pseudonym Lemony Snicket, author of the popular "Series of Unfortunate Events" books, Handler's debut novel delves into the lives of a group of close-knit friends at a San Francisco high school with razor sharp precision.

In a year where they should be worrying about university applications, we instead, through the diary of the smitten Flannery Culp, enter a world where pretentiousness runs high and academic rigour less so. Amidst the trials and tribulations, the dinner parties and social politics, the group end up encountering far more adult problems than their precocious minds can cope with, culminating in murder by unquestionably fashionable croquet mallet.

Very loosely based on Handlerís own experiences at high school, the author delivers a perfectly pitched account of late teenage life, which, despite the exaggerations, strikes particularly true to reality, especially with regards to the relationships between the friends. Flitting from high tension to good natured banter with ease, it is this interaction of the characters, and lack thereof, which drives the heart of the story.

Writing from the perspective of Flannery, a fantastically unhinged yet perfectly composed character, Handler is able to use the blackest of black humour both through both the mentally fraught individual and the plot itself to deliver a thoroughly uproarious yet hugely uncomfortable tale.

Handler proves to be a playful master of words and comedy, with lines so deadpan that they probably deserve their own funeral. A triumph of unreliable narration, the readerís perceptions of the main characters changes with alarming regularity, yet this never quite stretches credulity to breaking point. All the better, by the end one is left with countless interpretations as to the motivations of Flannery ñ this is a book firmly placed outside any kind of black and white definite conclusions. A scathing satire on various issues such as education, media scaremongering and the arrogance of adolescence, polished off with a healthy dose of Grade A wit, The Basic Eight rewards multiple reads and proves that Handler isnít just for the kids.