The overly self-aware writing and characters, including a 15-year-old girl and 12-year-old-boy, who all think and talk like 50-year-old men, and obvious jokes like the sisters of the lobsterhood that constantly break the 4th wall may put you off yet I was charmed by the Quarkbeast. This book offers a fresh set of ideas, even as the writing drove me crazy. 
 Terry Pratchett covers much of the same ground. But he never ever gives up a realistic grounding in his writing or fails to give his creatures heart. Instead of showing how clever he is, the clever just exudes. Snuff, one of his lesser masterpieces, is a book that I liked (3 stars) just as this one is a book that's okay.