Amélie Nothomb - Sulphuric Acid

Not up to her usual standard - her usual sharp-edged fable/fabulist style feeling a bit thin on this occasion. Many of the motifs are quintessentially Nothomb - most notably the fascination felt by one central female protagonist for another - but the premise (a satirically rendered concentration camp reality tv show from which viewers have the ability to select those who are executed) doesn't serve her well; the prose, too, isn't as sharp or as pleasing as in her other books.