Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Black Buck

wow wow wow, what a book. black buck was a rollercoaster of emotions — mostly anger and stress — from the perspective of someone who was willing to sacrifice it all to get ahead. it’s a great satire of corporate/tech culture and the racism that exists in those spaces and i enjoyed reading it.

i will say though that the some of the narrative/writing style wasn’t really for me. i get that it’s meant to be a satire from a more immature perspective, but parts of it made me roll my eyes. regardless, it was a pretty quick read so i would recommend it.

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bookshelvesandboybands's review

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dark emotional funny informative tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

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josie2k's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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ahopper7's review

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dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I wanted to like this more than I did; but the book didn’t end up working completely for me.

It’s definitely funny (100% helped by listening to the audiobook, the narrator did a fantastic job),and has some important themes on race especially in corporate America (this part worked for me as a black mixed race woman in corporate America, the micro and macro aggressions really hit for me).

I think, though, the story lost its way after the middle. The ending didn’t sit well with me, the final having a mix of “it really be your own people sometimes” felt out of place for me with the overall goal and themes of this book.

But this is a debut, so I will 100% be picking up this author’s future work, because the comedic writing alone is spot on for me.

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david_brent's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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cheye13's review against another edition

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challenging funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Wayyy too boot-licky for me.

This is excellently written and maintains a strong voice throughout. The depiction of race relations did not pull punches. The story surprisingly sustained a sense of broad hope.

I wanted more of everything. I wanted it to push further in every way. I wanted a deconstruction of capitalism, I wanted a deconstruction/exploration of masculinity (esp in white vs black spaces), I wanted a deconstruction of ambition. I disagree with reviews that say the back end went off the rails - it didn't go far enough off the rails.

Ultimately, it felt like a middle class cishet black man's white collar day dream - he gets to be a jetsetter, he gets to earn big bucks, he gets a nickname, a driver, a girl - he gets to Save The World. Which is a very good and important story to tell - there's plenty of those white stories out there, and this is miles better than any of those. But pitching it as a Sorry to Bother You comp does it a disservice.

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