While reading this novel, I consistently received and maintained the idea that Pessl wrote this novel with the sole intention of causing critics to gush. The endless "citations" (most of which are fraudulent), and the titling of the chapters which bear little relevance to the actual story seem to me to be an attempt at glorification; nothing more. I have heard endless praise for the novel's climactic ending, but this, too, is only done for reasons that I have explained. The ending is haphazardly thrown into the novel with such a shock that I almost hit myself in the head with the over-stuffed novel for having taken time out out of my life to read the first 400 pages. In my opinion, the ending could have been done so much better and in a better fashion, rather than slapping it on at the end like one would a point that couldn't be made due to time restraints. The prose of Pessl is good at best, with her characters slightly dynamic. But had this book been less superfluous and pretentious (length doesn't irk me in books), with a smoother plot, I would have given it a 4/6.