ABOUT THIS BOOK:
A standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.
Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.
But there are rules:
He cannot look inside the box.
He cannot ask questions.
He cannot tell anyone.
They must leave immediately.
He must leave all trackable devices behind.
As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.
The truth promises to be even stranger, and may change how you see the world.
Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.
But there are rules:
He cannot look inside the box.
He cannot ask questions.
He cannot tell anyone.
They must leave immediately.
He must leave all trackable devices behind.
As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.
The truth promises to be even stranger, and may change how you see the world.
RAITING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I honestly struggled with what to rate this book. Full disclosure, I’m a big fan of Jason Pargin’s work going back to his Cracked days, but I’m also an avid reader of the JDATE series as well as the Zoey Ashe series. I was really excited to read this book and was also super psyched to get a physical copy of the ARC (side note: the reason I started reading ARCs was so I could get a copy of this ARC). I don’t know what I was expecting, but I have to say that while I really enjoyed this book, I found parts of it hard to read and others came off a little preachy even? Specifically, there is a section of this book where the main character, Abbott, goes on a long, sexist rant that gets little to no pushback from the female main character, Ether. I understand (or at least I think I do) what the author is trying to do here. The main theme of the book seems to be a commentary on how divided our world is and how easily a disagreement on social issues can become a screaming match. How we all could be better off if we listened and responded to each other with sincerity and empathy, and in many ways I agree. I would have, however, liked to see some actual resistance from Ether during this section of the book as I feel that even though the point is that we all need to listen to each other, Abbott does little listening to Ether on this subject. I also think that the “woman who is kind and compassionate even while a man is shitting all over her ideals and gender” thing just feels gross. Lying back and taking it while someone screams sexist rhetoric at you feels like a step backward and not a step forward. I’ve always admired Pargin’s ability to have really clear and well thought out ideas about societal issues and frankly, it felt like this missed the mark. I was never more aware that I was reading a female character that was written by a first-world man than I was while reading parts of this book.
*However*, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t like this book. I really liked the redemption arc that Ether’s character is going through and also somehow (spoiler alert) Malort? Crazy. Did not see how much I was going to cry when I figured out Malort’s deal coming. Truly, there were parts of this book that made me laugh so hard and parts that made me tear up so much. It’s a clichè to say, but this book was full of honesty and heart. I had a hard time putting it down on multiple occasions. After watching how people I knew got so far into conspiratorial thinking so quickly during the pandemic, I found the Reddit conspiracy sections so entertaining and realistic. That’s something that I’ve enjoyed about some of Pargin’s other work: The parts where you read it and go, “Oh my god, that’s so dumb that it’s exactly the way it would actually happen!” Is it my favorite book by this author? No, but I have to say that I feel it’s one of his best written works. I would’ve liked to see Abbott have some sort of personal growth at the end, which I didn’t really see, but seeing the others’ made for a really satisfying and touching read. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels they might enjoy it.
I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box Of Doom comes out September 24 and preorders are available now.
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