Book Review: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson

In The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party, we are introduced to Octavian, and slowly learn about his childhood and life. Information about him is revealed one piece at a time. He grows up in a scientific institute with his mother and lots of "fathers" who are scientists interested in his development. When Octavian learns more about his role and his mother's in this institute, he must come to terms with that reality.

The book began very slowly for me. I couldn't really get into the story at all, since it was more a group of vignettes of his childhood. I thought that the somewhat archaic language used (which was historically pretty accurate) was a real drawback some of the time. I only began to get really interested in the book later on. The last hundred or so pages are very well done and emotionally involving. I was also annoyed at exceedingly long and confusing title. This is a very good cross-over title (meaning it is sufficiently "literary and intelligent" to be an adult title as well).

RATINGS:
s-factor: !
Very little swearing.

mrg-factor: none.

v-factor: -> ->
A few fairly disturbing scenes, but not gory.

Overall rating: ***