Summary:
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.
Review:
Jason Pargin is known for his dark humor, and ‘High Weirdness’ with books such as ‘John Dies At The End’ (of which I had actually first read earlier this year) and blurring the lines of reality with strange visions and coincidences. With ‘…Black Box of Doom’ Pargin nestles us down with real characters in a real work setting, no strange machinations or strangeness here.
This is a story about eccentric real-world characters that end up crossing paths and embark on a cross-country adventure. This story is plastered with online commentary and is certain to ‘call out’ the reddit trolls and live-stream chatters as the world watches these events unfold and provide their un-substantiated opinions. While the main characters are cut-off and unaware of the viral phenomenon they’ve created, the characters often wax poetic about how online culture is the downfall of society. These diatribes often take a close examination of the dark lurkers of the internet, though Pargin skillfully laces in a dose of positivity to make it all go down smooth.
The pacing of this book was that of a nationwide manhunt. as the main character pair become ‘fugitives’ and hav to travel through the heartland to get from LA to Washington DC. The book keeps you on the move from one town to the next as fervor grows.
The characters were not too far fetched, which is also unfortunate how plausible this story could become.
I’m a sucker for the dark humor, quirky, and offbeat stories, however, overall I felt it may have been a bit too heavy on the internet subcultures and too light on the humor. It was an examination of the glorification of the reddit counterculture and the crowd-sourcing of rumors and information from various anonymous vulgar-forum-usernames. While entertaining and latent with social commentary, I wasn’t entirely ‘struck’ by this story.
Pargin has carved out his niche and if you’re a big fan of his other works I would suggest that you check it out. Otherwise it your mileage may vary.
But don’t take my word for it! (back cover)
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