What readers think of The Nix, plus links to write your own review.

Wow! (Sigh.) Wow! (Sigh.) Oh, wait. This is a book review. I should use real words to describe it. Let's see...Genius. Astounding. Mind-boggling. An absolute must-read. I would give it 10 stars if I could.

The title of the book comes from a Norwegian superstition about the Nix, a cruel, vicious water spirit that appears in the form of a gentle horse. The moral of this fable is that the things you love the most will hurt you the worst.

Due to author Nathan Hill's incredibly creative structure, style and plot execution, this is unlike any novel I have ever read. The plot, which is complex and jumps back and forth primarily between 2011 and 1968, is far too difficult to summarize here. Read the official reviews for that, but know that you'll only get a sliver of it. The plot simply defies succinct description! But don't worry. Complex though it is, it is easy to follow.

As much as this book is about plot, it is even more about the characters. The main character is Samuel, a young professor of English at a small liberal arts college outside Chicago. He is the hub from which the other characters are the spokes--his mother who abandoned him when he was a child, a beautiful violin prodigy and her twin brother, a student who obsessively cheats, '60s college radicals, a violent police officer named Charlie Brown and a video gamer who plays to such excess that this addiction has extraordinarily dire effects on his health and brain.

One of the most interesting aspects of the author's form/function is that we as readers know things--a lot of things--that the characters don't know (or take a LONG time to learn/figure out). So we have background and insight into what is happening in a boldly innovative way that is curiously effective.

Most of all, Nathan Hill has accomplished every author's ideal hat trick: Great literature, highly-enjoyable entertainment and commercial success.

Epilogue (added after I published this review on Amazon and Goodreads): I was privileged to hear Nathan Hill speak at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. on September 2, 2017, and even he can't summarize the plot!

Great book.....some parts were hilarious like the crazy drivers who won't cut you a break and the attitude you get from shopping at organic food stores. But the Alice/ Faye/Charlie Brown segment was too long and stretched my willing suspension of disbelief beyond the limit. I was bored by the lengthy description of gamers, and thought Faye was one of the most self serving characters ever created. Timorous and shy......not a bit. However, I read the entire book and loved most of it. Would recommend to readers who can keep track of a circuitous plot and a plethora of characters who frequently change their name.

This book is an incredibly well written book with many twists and turns. Despite its length, I could not put it down and was extremely upset to find out this is Nathan Hill's first novel! Can't wait to read more!

Possibly the worst book I’ve have ever read. A Psuedo intellectual gruel. I put it down when the home town boyfriend’s letter was stored in a book, and what book? You guessed it, Paradise Lost—oooh, you get it man? Loss of innocence and all that stuff. Preposterous without being whimsical,and pedantic without being informed this book read like the author stapled together a bunch of Wikipedia entries on random topics. Yeesh. Oh yea, I learned from this book that Walt Disney World is, this will just blow your mind, is Hyper-Commercialized! How insightful. For a sixth grader maybe.