lay1onme 's review for:

Supermarket by Bobby Hall

2.25

dark emotional funny sad 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: No

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Supermarket is hard to describe: it’s a drama story, a thriller, and a meta narrative all at once. The story follows a man, Flynn, as he takes up a job at a supermarket to gather inspiration for his book. Of course, things don’t go to plan. 

The twist is one you can see coming miles away, but I like the way it was executed. It does happen twice however, and it is much less impactful the second time. What I did not like, however, were the characters. 

Flynn is a dick, he truly is. He uses the supermarket and its employees as playthings to wrote into his work without permission or tact. He blames his love interest, Mia, for things that make sense for her to do considering the situation. He lacks even an ounce of self-awarness, mental illness or not. There are black characters in this book, but most are caricatures and you can tell the author is painfully white; there’s little tact here too. I wanted to DNF the book solely for that, but I’m glad I didn’t. (But, I was fighting as to whether or not I should DNF it, then I would turn the page.) 

This story deals with mental illness, but it does not use it as a trope: ||Flynn is not evil because of his illness, he doesn’t even know he’s ill! He’s just trying to fight for a normal life.|| Everything that’s laid out in the story is utilized effectively, especially the introductory hook; the ending is beautifully chilling. 

Overall, not bad. But I’m not sure if I would recommend it.