Trust

This is trying to be too clever. I get the concept of using multiple stories to strip back the truth, but this in places was just plain unreadable.

The first story is alluded to through the rest of the book as some literary masterpiece. It is instead a badly written piece of dry prose that is just plain boring. That conceit that this is a brilliant novel just does not work and undermines a lot of the story telling later.

The second of the stories is the most problematic one, written as an outline to a journal. The fact that it is just an outline means that it is incomplete and basically nonsensical in places. The stylistic choice was entirely unnecessary.

The third story is more readably but because it leans on the previous two it is ultimately undermined.

The final story is again a journal (although fortunately more complete in this case). The final reveal of the truth is moderately well done, but not enough to wash away the absolute drivel at the start of the book.

No way near as smart as it thinks it is