It's 1985 and Brian Jackson has arrived at university with a burning ambition - to make it onto TV's foremost general knowledge quiz. But no sooner has he embarked on 'The Challenge' than he finds himself falling hopelessly in love with his teammate, the beautiful and charismatic would-be actress, Alice Harbinson.
When Alice fails to fall for his slightly over-eager charms, Brian comes up with a foolproof plan to capture her heart once and for all. He's going to win the game, at any cost, because - after all - everyone knows that what a woman really wants from a man is a comprehensive grasp of general knowledge . . .
Rating: 3 Stars
Positives: Starter For Ten is very well written and it's easy to follow the flow of time given within the story. However there are the tiniest flaws such as we never find out which university the entirity of the story is based at. The story however is very easy to follow and it is very true to life.
Negatives: I'm not blaming David Nicholls for this in the slightest, but I really really disliked the main character Brian. As such I found my attention wandering whilst attempting to read, and every single time he tried to impress Alice I found myself wanting to scream in frustration. The other issue that I had is that the characters weren't very fluid, we always saw Alice as the pretty popular girl, Brian was always the geeky kid from Southend who really doesn't have a clue and Patrick was always the arrogant prick who is determined to win at University Challenge. Let's just say I like my characters to develop and evolve over the course of a book, not stay the same all the way through.
Would I recommend this book? Sadly not. I really struggled to get into the book no matter how well written it was, and it felt like too much hard work for a story that didn't seem to be going anywhere.
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