I'm not sure I'm even reading the same book as the other reviewers. I'm almost finished and I have LOVED this book (and the book seems to love me). Yes there is a smattering of scatological humour, yes sometimes there seems a gag or one-liner too many BUT this is also metafiction of the highest order, it is mixing high culture with low, it's brilliant, a fantastic idea expertly executed.

This book is really very funny and, towards the end, extremely gripping. It's about Miranda, who is looking for romance, who discovers a dusty book hidden away on the back of a shelf in the library. Miranda steals the book because the librarian won't let her take any more books out and she is overdue. She is desperate to read it because it contains the secret to finding love. This book turns out to be wanted by the Secret Service as they thought they'd destroyed all exisiting copies. They think it contains a conspiracy theory that they want hushed up. Miranda has a whole range of crazy adventures as the Secret Service try to take the book from her. It all makes for some hilarious reading. Does she get her man in the end? I'm about to find out - don't ruin it for me...

Oh, to add to the quirkiness of this book, the story is actually being told by the book itself! It sees you, the reader, as its lover, after all our relationship with books is pretty intimate, but it wants to tell you about its previous lover... Miranda. What a novel idea in every sense of the word.

This is what I imagine the result would be if you mixed Bridget Jones with Thursday Next (Jasper Fforde) and then dropped in a big dollop of post structural, Barthesian thinking in. Clever, mad, funny, compelling.

I'm really looking forward to Brill's next one - seen it's about to come out - How To Forget... sounds just as mad. Great. ( )

I hated hated hated this book! It was far too clever & pretentious for its own good. In every single paragraph (no, actually, correct that: in every single SENTENCE) there was a 'clever' pun, intended to make the reader chuckle inwardly and think 'aaahhh, how absolutely clever'. Instead, my reaction was, after the first few pages, 'oh come on, not again'... Apart from that, the plot was absolutely preposterous & got worse & worse as the book progressed. Finally, the characters were ridiculous & caricaturish. The female characters were presented as these disgusting creatures with all sorts of weird, sickening habits, & their bodies (rather, the not-so-nice parts of their bodies) were described in exhausting, cold detail. Judging from the way he portrays women, I think the writer is a huge misogynist.

We read this for a book group (big mistake to choose it!) & we all- unanimously- agreed that either Marius Brill is, secretly, a 17 year old boy, or that at the very least the book is aimed for 17 year old boys who have far too much contact with pop culture. ( )