Harris produces a rich tapestry of secondary characters and engaging plot lines involving predatory sexual behaviour, social ostracism and bullying. But it is in her meticulously researched and visceral portrayal of Jasper’s synaesthetic world that the novel is at its most distinctive and compelling.
This is a book that had me laughing and also wiping away a tear or two ... it has so much vivid description, coupled with first-class characterisation and hear-it-in-your-head dialogue. Climb aboard and enjoy the roller coaster ride of emotions at play in a murder mystery that delights in keeping you guessing all the way. It could be the book of the year.
[A] fantastic debut ... Readers enamored of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Rosie Project will delight in Harris’s sparkling novel.
Comparisons of this novel with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time will be inevitable but, sadly, unwarranted... Although Harris strives to keep things coherent with chapter headings dated using Jasper’s idiosyncratic color markers, readers must work to make sense of it all. Unpacking Jasper’s color-coded reality becomes as tedious as deciphering hieroglyphics... A potentially engaging mystery embedded in an overly daunting puzzle.
