Noughties is a coming of age tale told over the course of an evening of the last night of uni interspersed with trips into the past. It’s Ben Masters’ first novel.

I anticipated seeing more of myself in the main character (Eliot) based on the synopsis. Inevitably there were moments when I saw a little of myself in him; overall though, I’ll say that Eliot is unique. We had a significantly different university experience and he is kind of a selfish dick. So instead of trying to self-reflect I ended up just sitting back and enjoying the ride. Do students really drink that much and that frequently? Apparently Oxford is bumping.

Masters is hilarious. He’s also very intelligent – a fact he attempts to make abundantly clear by referencing every literary masterpiece he could possibly squeeze in. Other reviewers have called Noughties a student novel. Reviewers define the term differently but I get their gist – a new something (first time author, designer, etc.) tries to show how well prepared and knowledgeable they are by including all the bells and whistles. In doing this, and by focusing on making details so colourful, Masters sacrifices some depth to his story and his characters. But you know what? I really enjoyed that. It worked in the context, and Masters has an engaging writing style.

I always think it sounds like such a diss, but in my eyes, this book qualifies as a well-written beach read. I'm giving the book a 3.5 but I can't decide whether to bump it to 4 and round down to 3. #firstworldproblems