La Vérité sur l'Affaire Harry Quebert

This is the first full book I've read in French, so.. yay for that. The plot is insane. I'm glad it was so engaging because otherwise reading it in French would have probably been too difficult and I'd have given up. As it was, I sometimes found myself annoyed that I had to slow down to look words up, but other times it felt like the words were jumping off the page. I'd look up any number of words to make sure I understood exactly what was happening and to keep progressing.

Stylistically though, it's... pretty bad. Normally I might not even comment on that, but for a book with a character that alludes to Nabokov (his Lola is Dicker's Nola) and sometimes even tries to playfully imitate Nabokov (N.O.L.A.), you just can't miss on style. To use a sports metaphor, if you want to play in the big leagues, you better bring your A game. Sometimes the prose had me rolling my eyes. It's not as stock as say, Stephen King, (yes, I did go there), but it can be pretty tough to ignore sometimes.

That said, don't skip it. Don't read it for style, but read it. The story is fantastic.