Among Others

Just finished this gem of a novel this morning!  It has several things about it that appeal to me and they are this; 1. It is written in the form of a diary.
2. The protagonist talks a lot about what she reads (which is mainly science fiction, and because she was excused from doing three hours daily of exercise at her boarding school,  she read a great deal!). 3. It is what it is.  What I mean by that last part is that there isn't, like current popular fiction, a nasty twist at the end.  I seriously was waiting for the other shoe to drop because this story reminded me very strongly of the feel of The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks which had a seriously wicked, twisted ending, so when I was just ten pages from the end I was almost shaking in my boots wondering how this story would end, and then it did end!  The world did not drop out from underneath me, I was pleasantly surprised and I loved it!  What a mindfully suspenseful non-twisty tale.  Of course, I will be seeking out the rest of her books, once I have read all of the ones that were mentioned in this book (which I have not already read).   Jo must have made an extensive  study of the craft,  the knowledge is all there (which I can attest to having read a great deal of the books that were mentioned), I got the references.  If you are a sci-fi book-geek, this is a perfect book for you!    It won both the Nebula and the Hugo Awards.