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2.98 AVERAGE
2.98 AVERAGE
It was ok.
I was entertained enough to want to finish the book but I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone else. One star for effort. One star for mild entertainment. One more star for feeling generous I guess?
Let's start off with the good stuff.
What I enjoyed:
- Easy read
- Fast paced
- Interesting premise
- Might make for an cool HBO mini series
The book is essentially the same exact story structure as season 2 of Mr. Robot. Sound familiar?
The main difference is trading the prison for the supermarket. The story similarities are so striking that about 1/4 way into this book, I knew what the "twist" was going to be. Granted, I don't feel like the author was exactly being subtle about signaling what was really going on here so maybe that was their intention.
A better comparison might be Fight Club? I guess Mr. Robot comes to mind because I've been watching it and it's fresh in my mind.
I dunno, maybe it's just me and I'm being too hard on the book. But I think it wants to be Fight Club so badly but doesn't seem to understand exactly what made Fight Club so great (and why you can't re create that particular twist again).
My other qualms are that there is literally no reason to care about the protagonist.
We're supposed to empathize with him because of his psychological and emotional issues but he's still an unlikeable asshole. Even when you take Frank out of the equation, Flynn only see's women based off of their physical attractiveness and as objects to be desired. Mia's character is such a comical caricature of middle school male fantasy that I still, after finishing the book, don't know if she was meant to be real or if she was just another projection of Flynn's fractured psyche. I wish I could say that I thought the author did this intentionally to mess with me as the reader but I really think that might be reading into it too much. I think she's just poorly written.
Actually, basically all of the female characters are all one dimensional cardboard cutout, unrealistic, fantasy objects only there as props for Flynn to desire and have sex with. They all have "amazing bodies" and most of them have nothing of substance to do other than have sex with Flynn or Frank or just be background text for how much he admires their figure.
My point above wouldn't be terrible if the women themselves had anything of value to add to the story. Like if they offset Flynn's one dimensional, juvenile desire with their own complexities, it might be an interesting juxtaposition. But the book never gets there.
Every character Flynn meets is so unbelievable as to leave the reader questioning if any of them are even real. And maybe that's the point? Maybe everything was in his head the whole time? The ending is certainly designed to keep us guessing.
TL;DR
If this book has a redeeming quality, something of value that I can point to, is that its description of anxiety, depression and mental illness really lets you feel the weight of how crushing it can be to not know how to escape your own mind. It can hold you hostage with no clear way out. It's just too bad that the wrapping for that message is so poorly constructed.
I was entertained enough to want to finish the book but I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone else. One star for effort. One star for mild entertainment. One more star for feeling generous I guess?
Let's start off with the good stuff.
What I enjoyed:
- Easy read
- Fast paced
- Interesting premise
- Might make for an cool HBO mini series
The book is essentially the same exact story structure as season 2 of Mr. Robot.
Spoiler
In which the main character sets up a false world for himself where what you're seeing on screen is actually how Elliott is dealing with being in Prison. He's trying to deal with his mental projection of his father who takes control of Elliott when he's unconscious. He knows that he isn't real but his mental projection has its own personality, desires, will to not die. He has arguments with himself, he beats himself up when he has fights with his other personality (which when viewed on camera only shows Elliott fighting himself). He tries to kill his other personality.The main difference is trading the prison for the supermarket. The story similarities are so striking that about 1/4 way into this book, I knew what the "twist" was going to be. Granted, I don't feel like the author was exactly being subtle about signaling what was really going on here so maybe that was their intention.
A better comparison might be Fight Club? I guess Mr. Robot comes to mind because I've been watching it and it's fresh in my mind.
I dunno, maybe it's just me and I'm being too hard on the book. But I think it wants to be Fight Club so badly but doesn't seem to understand exactly what made Fight Club so great (and why you can't re create that particular twist again).
My other qualms are that there is literally no reason to care about the protagonist.
We're supposed to empathize with him because of his psychological and emotional issues but he's still an unlikeable asshole. Even when you take Frank out of the equation, Flynn only see's women based off of their physical attractiveness and as objects to be desired. Mia's character is such a comical caricature of middle school male fantasy that I still, after finishing the book, don't know if she was meant to be real or if she was just another projection of Flynn's fractured psyche. I wish I could say that I thought the author did this intentionally to mess with me as the reader but I really think that might be reading into it too much. I think she's just poorly written.
Actually, basically all of the female characters are all one dimensional cardboard cutout, unrealistic, fantasy objects only there as props for Flynn to desire and have sex with. They all have "amazing bodies" and most of them have nothing of substance to do other than have sex with Flynn or Frank or just be background text for how much he admires their figure.
My point above wouldn't be terrible if the women themselves had anything of value to add to the story. Like if they offset Flynn's one dimensional, juvenile desire with their own complexities, it might be an interesting juxtaposition. But the book never gets there.
Every character Flynn meets is so unbelievable as to leave the reader questioning if any of them are even real. And maybe that's the point? Maybe everything was in his head the whole time? The ending is certainly designed to keep us guessing.
TL;DR
If this book has a redeeming quality, something of value that I can point to, is that its description of anxiety, depression and mental illness really lets you feel the weight of how crushing it can be to not know how to escape your own mind. It can hold you hostage with no clear way out. It's just too bad that the wrapping for that message is so poorly constructed.
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Well, I gotta give it to Bobby Hall, I did in fact actually love this book, but definitely not in the way that he intended.
This is bad. So, so bad. Shockingly bad. This is "I can't believe I'm reading this in an actual professionally bound book published by a major publisher and not on some fifteen year old's defunct Tumblr" level bad. This is all of the most burnt scrapings from the bottom of the angsty white boi barrel blended together into a Mountain Dew and self-loathing flavored smoothie. It's so on the nose content-wise and so ineptly written that I actually held out a smidgen of hope that this was supposed to be a parody of Tyler Durden and Travis Bickle-worshipping self-proclaimed "outcasts" rather than an actual example. (If it ever comes out that this is in fact a parody, I am changing my rating to five stars and lobbying for Hall to receive the Noble Prize in Literature)
For all that, as you may have gathered, I had an absolute fucking blast reading this book. This is the Troll 2 of literature. I wasn't actually drunk while reading this (although that probably would have helped) but I definitely *felt* drunk on sheer giddiness by the end. I was seriously contemplating a three star rating to split the difference between the actual quality and the entertainment value, but I didn't want to mislead people into thinking this was better than it is. It blows. But in a really entertaining way. If you're down for that, then yes absolutely pick this up.
This is bad. So, so bad. Shockingly bad. This is "I can't believe I'm reading this in an actual professionally bound book published by a major publisher and not on some fifteen year old's defunct Tumblr" level bad. This is all of the most burnt scrapings from the bottom of the angsty white boi barrel blended together into a Mountain Dew and self-loathing flavored smoothie. It's so on the nose content-wise and so ineptly written that I actually held out a smidgen of hope that this was supposed to be a parody of Tyler Durden and Travis Bickle-worshipping self-proclaimed "outcasts" rather than an actual example. (If it ever comes out that this is in fact a parody, I am changing my rating to five stars and lobbying for Hall to receive the Noble Prize in Literature)
For all that, as you may have gathered, I had an absolute fucking blast reading this book. This is the Troll 2 of literature. I wasn't actually drunk while reading this (although that probably would have helped) but I definitely *felt* drunk on sheer giddiness by the end. I was seriously contemplating a three star rating to split the difference between the actual quality and the entertainment value, but I didn't want to mislead people into thinking this was better than it is. It blows. But in a really entertaining way. If you're down for that, then yes absolutely pick this up.
Almost DNFed this book at the beginning but gave it a chance. I surprisingly ended up really enjoying this even if it was a little weird and bumpy at times. With it being his first book obviously there’s room for improvement and the writing isn’t great but the story line was good and it was a really fun way to pass time. Good as an audiobook as well!
I bought this book on a whim- it was on display at the Amazon 4-Star store. After returning home I discovered that it was written by rapper (?) Logic (I imagine his fans are the only ones responsible for giving the book a high rating).
The writing is amateur and disjointed. I felt like I was reading something written by a naive teenager. It was quite a slog to get through because a lot of the plot just didn’t make sense. While a potentially interesting premise, this book needs some heavy editing. The worst $10 I’ve spent in a while.
The writing is amateur and disjointed. I felt like I was reading something written by a naive teenager. It was quite a slog to get through because a lot of the plot just didn’t make sense. While a potentially interesting premise, this book needs some heavy editing. The worst $10 I’ve spent in a while.
dark
emotional
slow-paced
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reads like a 14-year-old wrote it.
The way the author talked about black people was very juvenile. One of the “flaws” of the escape plan the main character plans is in his words, that there’s no such thing as black Santa’s or elves so the costumes they steal won’t work. Plus there’s even odder comments about the n word and describing a “stereotypical” black woman. It was very much giving white 8th grade boy who thinks he’s cool and inclusive because he’ll talk about race.
The way the author talked about black people was very juvenile. One of the “flaws” of the escape plan the main character plans is in his words, that there’s no such thing as black Santa’s or elves so the costumes they steal won’t work. Plus there’s even odder comments about the n word and describing a “stereotypical” black woman. It was very much giving white 8th grade boy who thinks he’s cool and inclusive because he’ll talk about race.
at first i had a hard time reading this book, the beginning is a whole lot at once and very confusing but then it began to come together. and i realized some of what would happen before it did. but i was still caught by surprise a few times. overall, this book was pretty good, but the writing was hard to stick with, as the way he described things was problematic at times. i really hope thats not how white men actually perceive people. i appreciated how the book ended but there were still moments that didnt really fit into the narrative.
Honestly was not expecting this book to be good. I was excepting to be disappointed, but the style of writing is what I think made it stand out. Yes it was a little out of wack at points but honestly from the view point of the main character it was written perfectly.