WTF?! 
 On the surface, Geek Love has it all: jealousy, betrayal, sexual objectification, and murderous revenge. It's got a whole shitload of family drama topped off with a generous helping of physical deformities and possibly, possibly, a side of incest. (That part's not too clear, though.) The problem is, once you get past the shock value of wanting to fuck your brother who also happens to look like a giant fish, there really isn't much going on here. 
 Right before starting this book, I read Middlesex. The similarities in theme (except for the bit about the giant fish) are uncanny: there's incest, sexual objectification, and also a shitload of family drama. The difference is, Middlesex is an engaging novel while Geek Love, on the other hand, falls sadly flat. Besides the fact that I'm not usually keen on weakling protagonists--Oly is a patsy who gets pushed around her entire life by her older brother whom, for some reason, she never stands up to--I was actually more disturbed by the whole Miss Lick situation. I believe she's supposed to be like a second coming of Dr. Phyllis, disfiguring her clients as a means of helping them achieve enlightenment, yet for some strange reason she wants to remove Miranda's tail? I don't get it. You'd think she'd want to make it bigger or help her grow a second one or something. The premise of this just doesn't seem very well thought out to me. 
 Chick is the one thing I did love about this book, though, and Geek Love could have used a lot of more of him. But as for the rest of the Binewskis, I could take 'em or leave 'em. I mean they might be marginally interesting, but not enough for me to care what ends up happening to them. So by the time whatever happens to them, um, happens, I had pretty much lost interest. 
 The Binewski Family.