Daniel Handler (2002) the basic eight

The cover of this book reminds readers that Daniel Handler is the author of the Lemony Snicket series that’s why I gave it a chance. I’ve not read Lemony Snicket, but I did see a film starring Jim Carey playing a goofball Jim Carey character, which I quite liked. This I imagine is the jump to an adult version of  children’s books. I got to page sixty of Flannery Culp’s diary. We immediately know she is in prison and she and her seven school friends (7 + 1 = basic eight) have received some kind of national notoriety having killed someone, or perhaps more than one person. The motive isn’t clear and that’s the engine of the book and how the reader gets to know Flannery and her spoiled friends. They’re all talented and beautiful alpha males and females that form their own exclusive Grand Opera Breakfast Club at high school, with shades of Donna Tart’s The Secret History (which I can’t remember much of, but I know I did enjoy at the time, although if I remember correctly her follow up book was guff) and the tone aimed at I suppose is Holden Caulfield Catcher in the Rye. It’s not as good as either of these books, but not many books are. I gave up, no longer young and beautiful enough to care about such high school goings on.