Reviewed by Melissa Fish
Let’s face it – I’m a sucker for novelty. That, in fact, is what first piqued my interest in Walter Kirn’s : its format is so utterly unique. Kirn first published the novel in January 2006, not in hard-copy format, but as an “Internet novel”, with new updates added every week. Taking full advantage of all the bizarre, interesting, and slightly creepy phenomena available on the Internet, Kirn provides links at certain phrases throughout the story to different videos or websites, some of which seem totally irrelevant and others absolutely crucial to the understanding of the plot. An interactive book! I thought. If nothing else, this will be fun! And it certainly was fun; the prose is very accessible, the plot is infused with intrigue, the characters are quirky, and the web links provide their own continual entertainment.
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