I had a lot of mixed feelings on this book. It was a three star read, but not a mediocre three star read. Three stars that were definitely thought provoking and worthwhile, but left me not sure how to feel.

Some of the literary references and push on academia seemed forced, like Marisha Pessl was trying very hard and her effort came through as quite obvious in the text. It bothered me so much that the references were made up because I'm the kind of person who actually googles them, and I couldn't here. Her characters also seemed largely the exact same as in the other book I've read of hers, Neverworld Wake, although the writing style was so different.

A number of the events in this book felt random. Eva's role, for instance, and the Paris trip. Zach. Some things came back around to be important in the end, but at the time they made no sense and had no build up. It felt kind of like she hadn't planned all the way through, and I came away feeling like I was missing a lot.

I enjoyed Blue's character and her relationship with her father a lot. I liked that this was a book you had to read slowly, I wouldn't have been able to binge it like I normally do. I liked how it constantly kept me guessing and I had no idea what was going on. And I absolutely loved the ending. I thought Final Exam was a brilliant way to end the book, and it almost bumped up my rating to 4 stars. But overall, I just had too many mixed feelings and too many aspects of this didn't work for me.