Lily Xiao Xiao itibaren 8800-156, Portekiz itibaren 8800-156, Portekiz

I don't think was book was for everyone. I understood the satire of it (that is I got the joke) but I found many of the murder scenes to be quite graphic and it made the subject distracting. A great critique on the yuppie society of the 80's (and in my opinion a society that really hasn't ended, especially in our country). It is well written prose with plenty of dark humor, I just didn't need every grim detail of each act he was performing, particularly when it came to how he killed women. I recommend with caution. Not for the squeamish.

I enjoyed the story and all of the action, but was a bit surprised by a couple of saucy scenes. I also felt aa bit let down by the ending. I don't feel like it really wrapped up the story for me.

This extremely introspective novel of a girl's growth into womanhood in 1950's London was rather a bore. The narrator, Meg, examines every situation she's in and every feeling she has about it to an incredible degree. This might be less jarring if told from a third person omniscient narrator, but in first person it becomes almost unbearable in its intense naval-gazing. Also, I find I don't really like her that much. Her story is supposed to be rather shocking and racy for the time and place it was written, but I found it both predictable and rather distasteful. Another character refers to Meg as a "cock-teasing bitch" and although she prefers to ascribe the comment to the speaker's own sadness and bitterness, I can't disagree with her. My personal philosophy is to live life having as much fun as possible without hurting anyone. Meg seems to live as miserably as possible, "unintentionally" hurting many people, and always being concerned with how she appears to an unseen outside non-existent observer. Since I as the reader am just such an observer, I'd advise her to stop being such a whiny bitch and grow up. She is the kind of woman who gives the rest of us a crazy, neurotic, hysterical bad name.