The Basic Eight

Book, 1969

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Publisher Unknown (1969)

Description

Flannery Culp wants you to know the whole story of her spectacularly awful senior year. Tyrants, perverts, tragic crushes, gossip, cruel jokes, and the hallucinatory effects of absinthe -- Flannery and the seven other friends in the Basic Eight have suffered through it all. But now, on tabloid television, they're calling Flannery a murderer, which is a total lie. It's true that high school can be so stressful sometimes. And it's true that sometimes a girl just has to kill someone. But Flannery wants you to know that she's not a murderer at all -- she's a murderess.

User reviews

LibraryThing member sparemethecensor

I read this on the beach in a day and found it highly engaging. It's funny given how self-aware it is, and it captures the simultaneous insufferable and compelling elements of being in high school perfectly. The Basic Eight are that clique that you both hated and envied in high school. The crime

committed drives that reality home. And the self-aware but spot-on takes on TV commentators -- even Oprah! -- are just irresistible.

(I should note that I saw the "twist" ending coming and I kept hoping that Handler would do something better than this, because the novel deserved more, so that was disappointing. It deserved something unique and original. But it isn't so bad that the novel isn't worth reading!)

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LibraryThing member shatteredreflections

This book completely blew my mind at the end. I knew something fishy was going on but really, I had not thought that. It is also sad how much like high school this book actually seems. You would like to think that most teen's are not that shallow. I originally bought this book because some of my

favorite childrens books are The Series of Unfortunate Events that Handler wrote as Lemony Snicket...I really enjoyed the book, but it was nice and depressing at the same time.

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LibraryThing member -happy_camper-

This is the kind of book that invites rereading--as soon as I finished it, I wanted to go back and reread it with an eye towards picking up all the subtle clues that pointed towards the resolution. It's a lot of fun (in a morbid way, at least after a certain point) and the whole time you can see

things coming together and at the same time coming apart, and building up to what we know (from the introduction) is going to happen.

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LibraryThing member lefou

I don't know that there are words. Just know that you need to read this book.

LibraryThing member smully

Ahhhhhh.... who didn't experience unrequited love in high school? Well, I'll bet few of us turned scorned advances into murder as Flannery Culp does in this darkly humorous foray into the trials of adolescence, insanity, loyalty, and amourous tirangles. Written by the man also known as Lemony

Snicket (never read him under that name), some may dismiss "The Basic Eight" as a juvenile book. Not quite. As a sucker for characterization and quirky writing style, Mr. Handler appeals to my weaknesses with his tragically hip, yet ultimately flawed teenagers who possess a penchant for fine dining, absinthe and croquet. This novel is a fun read of witty banter and unusual twists. Even I didn't see the big one coming.

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LibraryThing member Humbert_Humbert

High school can be quite difficult. No one knows this better than Flannery Culp in this incredible novel by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snickett). Spanning from drugs, alcohol, and sex this book encompasses it all. Although the final plot twist was predictable this book is still worth reading.

LibraryThing member Alleybelle

Who among us (people who are teenagers, and were once teenagers) can say that they haven't had fantasies of murder? Of course most of us can say that we haven't acted on those fantasies, Flannery Culp however can't make that boast, which is why we love her.

LibraryThing member airdna

A darkly comic look at coming of age at the turn of the 20th century. Reminiscent of the movie Heathers, this is a smart and biting satire of modern culture and teenage concerns, by the author otherwise known as Lemony Snicket. With a suprise ending that makes you want to go back and re-read the

whole thing again.

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LibraryThing member lenoreva

This cheeky yet somewhat confusing novel is by Daniel Handler, the genius that brought us Lemony Snickett's series of unfortunate events. The book is series of journal entries by Flannery Culp, one of the notorious teenage members of the basic eight who are accused of murder. Many of the journal

entries are followed by a list of vocabulary words and study questions. I liked the "high concept" nature of the book and the unique structure, but I found the plot and resolution somewhat muddied. Still, well worth the read.

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LibraryThing member annenoise

Scathing, self-aware, hilarious and occasionally desperately shocking. An adult Lemony Snicket for the kids who were smart in high school and didn't know how to control their raging hormones. Slightly confusing drift towards the ending - I feel the sense of open-ended narrative was purposeful, but

still feels drifting in a sea of sharp humor and characters. Flan is a particularly entertaining heroine that collapses into her own delusional view of what her life is, and the supporting cast is perfect in their cliches. The final party of the novel reminds me of more than one similar party, minus the murderous mayhem.

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LibraryThing member dennisjt

Off the wall teen crime story from Handler, filled with his wicked, twisted humor

LibraryThing member librarybrandy

This book was good--a fairly quick, engrossing read. I'm hesitant to say too much about the plot, as it was very reminiscent of another book--but to mention the title will totally ruin The Basic Eight, so you're best off just reading it for itself, and waiting until you're finished to put it down

and rant, "That was just like ______________!"

In fact, the ending is why I only gave it 4 stars, instead of the 5 I was thinking it deserved until that point.

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LibraryThing member flemmily

It took me a while to slog through this. It was well written and somewhat interesting but for some reason just didn't grab me. I loved the reminder about being pretentious in high school though; I think this is the only time in one's life when being pretentious is charming.

LibraryThing member Helena81

Man, is this book good. One of the blurbs says it needs a second reading, and I suspect this to be true. Not 100% sure the ending works (no spoilers, so I'll say no more), but the ride is sure worth it. Stick with it: I hated the first 50 pages or so, and then I gradually came to absolutely love

it. The writing is phenomenal.

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LibraryThing member Unreachableshelf

I read this book first a little over ten years ago, loved it, lent it to a friend, and never got it back. I replaced it several years later and just got around to rereading it and discovering it's just as good as I remembered, Flannery's voice and the weirdness and wonderfulness of her friends'

world. There were sentences I recognized when I read them, having remembered them for ten years but not quite been able to remember their context.

The final plot twist is one that has been done elsewhere, but it took me by surprise the first time, and after the reread I can say that the author does appear to have played fair with it. (Better, for that matter, than in its most famous use, but that's as much as I can say about that without spoiling anything.)

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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn

I've read a couple of Handler's 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 she's guilty – look at her name, after all!) The device makes for a very interesting unreliable narrator – but the best part of the book isn't Flan's tale of her highschool clique and how she wound up becoming infamous, but Handler's 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 it's also terribly sad in its accuracy.
Should be required highschool reading – not only for students but for faculty!

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LibraryThing member kalinichta

What starts off as your typical teenage murder-revenge tale becomes complex when you realize that something isn't quite right...

Handler's ability to render the self-consciously pretentious prose of a smart kid is uncomfortably accurate.

LibraryThing member waeschle

Couldn't get into. This teen book may be more fitting for a teen.

LibraryThing member JenneB

It started out great, but then about halfway through I began to hate it. I never did finish it, so maybe it got great again. I doubt it.

LibraryThing member caerulius

Daniel Handler (the "representative" for Lemony Snicket, of Series of Unfortunate Events fame), spins a satire drenched, blackly comic tale of high school hijinks. Flannery Culp loves Adam State, but Adam is more than he appears... and it turns out, so is Flan. Rife with absinthe, teen sex, murder,

hysteria, sexual harassment, angst, dinner parties and kleptomania, this is a really funny, really fun book. It parodies Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil and adult "experts" mercilessly. My only quarrel is that the final revelation is a little predictable/unoriginal. Otherwise, a fabulous bit of darkly snarky fun.

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LibraryThing member bookbrig

I made it to page 53 before I decided it was irritating me too much to continue. I'm not totally sure what I found so off putting, other than a boatload of pretension from the teen characters. Which, you know, may have been very fitting for the characters, but was super annoying for me.

Let's see

if I can find an example... Yes! I can. Page 15: I sighed. (How perfect my recall of these small details. I sighed, reader; I remember it as if it were yesterday.)

Blargh.

Though there were a few moments I found charming, I decided they weren't enough to keep me reading. So much for that.

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