Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Black Buck

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour

73 reviews

cheye13's review

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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browningwithabook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This story stressed me out in the best way, with a lot of twists and turns I did not see coming. One of the few times that the blurbs about a book absolutely did not lie 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Such a great narrator too. One of the best I've listened on audio.

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suzyvee's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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

4.75

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3littlewordz's review against another edition

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dark funny tense fast-paced

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

3.5

“Be careful of winning, it’s one of the most dangerous things you can ever do.”

If anything was proven in Black Buck, it was DEFINITELY this.

I wanted to like this so much more than I did. It started off pretty strong, and I liked the book's structure, with the ‘Sales tips’ sprinkled throughout. It was funny at times and definitely satirical overall. But I was slightly let down once I got about halfway through. The book was described as an excellent pick for fans between The Wolf of Wall Street and Sorry to Bother You, and I am a big fan of both. But I barely got either of those throughout it, and the main character Buck really just started to annoy me after a while. Maybe if I was in sales, some of this would translate a bit better.

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laynemandros's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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keeganrb's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.5

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gotem's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

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

I was not the audience for this book, so I don't think it's fair for me to rate it. What I will say is this definitely is not fast-paced. This is extremely well-written, just that it is approximately 200 pages of the same experience in different scenarios, with 100 pages to set the scene and main characters up and 100 pages that wrap everything up in a conclusion. So if you enjoy reading those types of things (re: groundhog day but instead of the day resetting it is another toxic workplace experience that corresponds with a negative inter-personal experience) then genuinely consider adding this book to your pile.

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