Reviews

Code for Failure by Ryan W. Bradley

lcline1981's review

Code for Failure is kind of a slight book, but it is really full of good stuff. I read and reviewed Ryan's short story collection Prize Winners last year, which struck me as the work of a very capable writer, and so I was excited when Lori asked me to be on the tour for this book. The novel is a semi-autobiographical portrait of a year in the life of a college dropout/gas station employee. The narrator is sort of typically apathetic, surprisingly popular with the ladies (do women really hit on gas station attendants this much?), and totally confused about what to do with the rest of his life. Working at a gas station is, in his mind, "code for failure," but he has little to no motivation to do anything else. So, he goes to work, gets drunk, listens to and ruminates on lots of cool music, goes on some really bad dates, sleeps with kind of a lot of women, and finally goes on a good date.

I thought the book was great. I also thought that although the book was pretty dirty, in the end it was a pretty lovely story about romance and falling in love (you'll see my question for Ryan about this below). It is totally real, and the characters easy to become attached to. I didn't really want the story to be over, although I was certainly satisfied with the ending. If you aren't opposed to some adult language and content, definitely pick up a copy of this one

howifeelaboutbooks's review

4.0

As Ryan says in his acknowledgments, this book is "a story about a screw-up gas station attendant written by a former screw-up gas station attendant." The book is a quick read, broken into short sections that will keep you saying "Just one more chapter, just one more" before you can attempt to put it down. It's a novel, but most pieces could stand alone as short stories; I felt like I was reading a collection that just happened to come together into a story arc at the end. Parts are crass, parts are funny, parts are punch-you-in-the-gut honest. It's a book about a college drop-out assessing the state of his life and what could possibly come next, but it's too easy to forget the narrator's age and apply his questions to your own situation. It's an entertaining book, yes, but it's also much deeper than that.

*I read an early release in advance of a blog tour that is coming up March 19th - March 27th.